


Shots Ring Out

by itsluckyyou



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Peter, Canon doesn't really matter in this story, Hurt Peter Parker, It's really not canon but it is, Mentioned Ben Parker, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Peter Parker Deserves Better, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker is a Mess, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, School Shootings, Suicide, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-07-29 01:20:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20073766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsluckyyou/pseuds/itsluckyyou
Summary: Peter Parker had training. Training to deal with robbers, petty crime and possible alien invasions. Nothing could have possibly trained him for this, though.OrThere's a shooter wandering the halls of Midtown School of Science and Technology.





	1. Hour One

**7:25 am – 8:25 am**

Peter Parker woke up to his Aunt May barging into the room furiously. Startled, he tried to stand up and fight off whatever intruder had made her so mad and was quickly made aware that his foot was stuck in the sheets. Try as he may, he couldn’t reorient himself in time and landed face first on his bedroom floor. Groaning, he opened his eyes to see her feet positioned directly in front of him.

“W-what’s wrong?” He mumbled as she helped him to his feet.

Last night had been truly the best night he had ever had patrolling. He was minding his own business, eating a sandwich May had packed for him, on top of one of buildings that was adjacent to the school. He had parked himself there to make sure that his decathlon friends made it home safely. They had been quite unlucky recently probably all thanks to Peter, but he felt it was only necessary to put in the extra effort.

Then, he had heard an explosion from pretty far away and had turned just in time to see a little flash of light appear by Stark Tower. Excitedly, he placed his sandwich down onto the ground making note of its precise location so that he could come back later and throw it out… which he did for the record and raced off towards the home of his mentor.

Mr. Stark had been home and in a little bit of trouble, (although if asked he had told Peter he would deny it) and well Peter had saved the day. Well, kinda. Peter had tried to save the day himself but had stumbled on his way in, running into the glass window instead of walking through the door. Whatever the case, his presence had caused enough of a distraction that Mr. Stark was able to handle the situation.

It was truly epic and well, he had to celebrate. By the time he had left Stark Tower, it was close to midnight. Then he had to go back towards the school to get his sandwich. And well, he hadn’t gotten into his bed until 1:00am and had just been too excited to fall asleep immediately.

Long story short, he was tired.

“Peter.” She breathed out, putting her fingers to the bridge of her nose. “How many times did I tell you about this interview today?”

Peter searched his brain as he stumbled towards his dresser. Interview… interview… interview. “Oh right! Yeah! … That’s today?”

“In 40 minutes.”

“And you have to drop me off at school first.” He remembered.

“Which is 25 minutes away.”

“And then get all the way to Manhattan.”

“Peter!” She screeched, running her hand though her hair. “_You._ You were supposed to be ready.”

“I-I’m sorry.” He admitted, pulling his pants up and trying to find his shirt – any shirt. Why couldn’t he remember to fold his laundry? “Uh Aunt May?”

She turned to face him before sighing. “Top drawer and don’t even think about packing your suit. We have dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Lynn tonight and you will _not_ be late to that.”

Sure enough, he found a drawer full of freshly washed and folded clothes. He threw a shirt on and ran into the bathroom to finish getting ready. By the time, he made it downstairs, May had a bagel waiting for him and was pushing him out of the door and into the car.

“May, I’m so so-.”

“I know, babe.”

Peter frowned and looked down at his bagel. He was already through half of it but couldn’t manage to stomach the second half. May had worked so hard for years for this interview and he had managed to mess it up in the matter of a few hours.

“It’s just, well last night – there was a thing at Stark Tower and -.”

“I’m going to kill Tony.” May scoffed. “What is the point of a suit with a curfew if the one monitoring you doesn’t care about the curfew?”

“N-no. M-Mr. Stark was just being nice.” He supplied easily before smiling widely. “I kinda saved the day… and him.”

May turned to look at her nephew, sitting there with a stupid grin on his face, probably remembering all of the details of last night. Normally when asked about is adventures of Spider-Man led to stoic gazes once the story was complete and May knew it was because he was focusing on all he _didn’t_ do as opposed to what he did.

With a sigh, she smiled and her anger at the morning subsided, if just for this moment. “You saved Tony Stark?”

Her nephew perked up excitedly before seemingly second-guessing himself. “Well, kinda.”

“How did you _kinda_ save Tony Stark?”

Peter smiled once more and dove into the story of last night, making sure to not leave any details out. Even when May questioned his decision on the sandwich arguing that if he didn’t help to save the planet from global warming, he would have no neighborhood to save.

“Good luck on your interview, Aunt May!” He called as he retreated from the car and started to jog towards the front doors. He heard May faintly call thank you but wasn’t sure if it was just due to his enhanced hearing or not. For no other reason than to be able to hang out with Ned for a few more minutes, he continued jogging until he got to his locker.

“Are we still on for movies Friday night?” Ned asked as he approached his best friend’s locker. Peter glanced at him briefly before turning to take his chemistry book out. “Because Rogue One was just put on Netflix and I-.”

“No way!” Peter exclaimed, only to be pushed into headfirst into his locker. Yelping as his head came in contact with metal, he did his best to turn around, which lead him to be face to face with Flash.

Groaning, he narrowed his eyes and shimmied so that he was no longer in Flash’s grip. It was times like these that really tested his desire to be Spiderman anonymously.

“What’s so exciting?” Flash taunted, a little unnerved by the ease Parker had shown when releasing himself from Flash’s grasp. It didn’t take much time for his confidence to pick back up though. With one more soft nudge, Peter was slamming back into the locker, this time facing Flash.

Ned licked his lips nervously as he watched the interaction. Peter’s self-control had always amazed him in terms of his emotions, but not showing Flash his true strength earned a new level of respect. “C’mon dude, leave him alone.”

Flash turned towards Ned and smirked. Peter frowned as he watched Flash start to berate Ned, taunting him. With every sentence, Ned’s frown deepened. Peter felt a familiar discomfort start to stir in his stomach as he lunged forward and pushed Flash backward. People around them gasped and Peter fought the urge to roll his eyes. The things they paid attention to.

The bell rang just as Flash was starting his move towards Peter, causing the slightly older boy to groan. “You got lucky this time, Parker.”

Peter and Ned shared a quick glance before both boys started laughing. This seemed to irritate Flash to no end but he couldn’t be late to first period again without getting detention so he hurried along down the hallway. Ned and Peter walked into their classroom.

“So Rogue One?” Peter asked curiously, smiling to himself out of pure excitement. “Your place or mine?”

Ned looked at him carefully, debating the options in his head with great consideration. On one hand, they could watch it at his house, but with his mom and dad unable to be considerate, it’d be loud and hard to focus. They could watch it at Peter’s but the television there was considerably smaller than the one in his house and where it was located welcomed glares from outside lights. Peter hadn’t seen Rogue One yet and Ned knew it had to be nothing but perfect. Peter deserved nothing less.

Before he could answer the intercom came on and both boys looked up, along with the rest of their class.

“We are in lockdown.” The principal’s voice came over the speakers. “This is not a drill. We are in lockdown.”

The speaker cut off, but not before Peter heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. The hairs on his arm stood up as he turned to give Ned a look. Their teacher ushered them against the wall and shushed them before turning the lights off.

“Are you going to do something?” Ned asked in a whisper, earning a glare from one of his classmates. Peter frowned as he looked back towards his seat where his backpack was resting.

“I don’t have my suit.” Peter whispered back, not looking away from his backpack. His phone was sitting in the water bottle pocket. He needed to call Tony and let him know.

Beth, someone who was in a few of Peter’s classes with him scooted towards them with tears in her eyes. “It’s probably just a drill.”

“Th-that’s true.” Ned responded evenly, his voice picking up into more than a whisper earning him a stern look from Mr. Harrison. Peter made eye contact with his best friend and shook his head. This was not a drill.

“You know, they say things like ‘this is not a drill’ but they’re almost always drills.” Beth continued, her words coming off rushed and panicked. “Things like this don’t just happen.”

Peter nodded his head sympathetically and looked around. Mr. Harrison was doing his best to take attendance as the rest of the class seemed to be in different emotional states ranging from inconvenienced to full-on panic. Beth fell somewhere in the middle, Ned was closer to panic now then anything else and Peter… well Peter was pretty panicked too. As far as he could tell, there was a real threat walking the halls of his school. His suit was at home. He couldn’t get to his backpack without causing a scene.

For the first time in a really long time, Peter felt helpless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am pretty far ahead with this story, so I will probably post chapters pretty rapidly.


	2. Hour Two

**8:25am – 9:25 am**

May walked into one of the greatest and well-equipped trauma centers in the country oozing confidence from her pores. Her heels clicked on the surface of the linoleum floor as she came closer and closer to her destination: a tiny office where a man who held her future in his hands would surely be sitting.

Despite her morning, she had only been 2 minutes late. Still not the best first impression, but she was confident in her ability to win him over.

“Dr. Mainary?” She asked as she tapped on the door frame. He was sitting with his hands folded under his chin. The man looked inconvenienced at the interruption, if not annoyed that she was late. “I’m May Parker. We have a meeting today?”

“I like to reserve my time for those who respect a clock.” The man replied without glancing up from the paper he was reading. Given the opportunity, May rolled her eyes at his half-ass attempt at sounding wise.

She licked her lips and stepped forward. “I am truly sorry for making you wait but 120 seconds is hardly an inconvenience to worry about, Dr. Mainary. Not when we choose a career in medicine and know what true inconveniences are.”

This seemed to catch his attention enough to glance up from his reading. He sighed and motioned for her to close the door and sit down.

They discussed the role of the job and her previous performance at her job in Queens. He nodded at every answer she supplied him with and smiled occasionally when she told a joke. Winning men over was sort of her specialty.

“So tell me, Ms. Parker, what is going to make sure that you arrive on time?” His tone was testing.

“I have never once arrived late to a shift in my entire life.” May responded easily, pointing towards the section of her resume that stated this fact. "And I know I was late today but that's only because my nephew-." 

The door opened aggressively and May jumped at the interruption. To be honest, she was a little relieved. Disclosing her more domestic tendencies to her potential employer may backfire, especially when the man gave off an aura of misogyny. There was no need to give him any more reason to worry about her commitment. She put her hand to her heart and turned to look at a woman who didn’t look much older than 25. Dr. Mainary looked up and nodded his head at the nurse.

“There’s a possible incoming trauma. Our ER staff have been alerted and are on standby.” The woman rushed out, pointing towards the television in an attempt to get the man to turn it on.

He struggled to find the remote control. “What has happened?”

“Nothing yet.” The nurse responded as she began to assist in the search for the remote. “There’s a shooter in a local high school. As far as has been reported right now, no law enforcement has made it into the building.”

The man sighed. “Okay, clear beds 2-5 for more serious patients and then reserve the back hall for minor injuries. Call in the on-call nurses and request the presence of an extra doctor or two.”

“Should we send any incoming patients to New York Pres?” She asked as she located the remote to turn on the news.

The conversation continued between the two of them but May didn’t bother to pay attention because on the screen in front of her, Midtown High was shown with a breaking news bulletin underneath.

Ordinarily, the news wouldn’t have scared her as much as it did. At first, she probably would have had a heart attack but she had lived with Peter being SpiderMan for a while now and had gotten used to it. In the instances he did get hurt, he healed fairly quickly.

But Peter couldn’t be Spiderman at MidTown. He didn’t want people to know who he was and without the option of anonymity, she knew he wouldn’t readily start shooting webs willy nilly. The anxiety of the situation was probably circulating through his head endlessly. Did he save his identity or did he save his classmates?

May knew which he would end up choosing and cursed herself for putting him in that position. He was a sitting duck in a school that was supposed to provide him with safety and didn’t have the means to protect himself. Because of her.

*

Peter sat feeling quite useless. It had been about 20 minutes since the announcement and as far as he could tell, there had been no other gunshots following the one that they had heard over the loudspeaker. He was getting impatient – not just because he was sitting in a terribly uncomfortable position but that he knew there was nothing he could do to prevent anything worse happening.

And he knew that something worse was going to happen. It always did.

He nudged Ned and motioned towards his desk with his head. “I have to get over there.”

“There will be no moving from these positions until the Principal tells us it is okay.” Mr. Harrison reminded, seemingly overhearing Peter.

Ned knew that Peter had a lot of contacts in his phone that could possibly help with the aftermath of the shooting – who didn’t have to answer to any form of bureaucracy that the police had to. It was a necessity that Peter get to his phone. Without thinking about any sort of consequences, Ned stood up briskly.

“Ow.” Ned screeched, reaching for his leg. “Cramp.”

As the class turned their attention to his friend, Peter stood up and moved towards his backpack. Despite the stress of the situation, Peter smiled at his friend’s attempt to distract everyone and reached for his backpack. He grabbed his phone and readied himself to walk back over to the group, only to hear something shuffling out in the hallway.

Peter licked his lips, made eye contact with Ned and slipped out into the hall. Ned sat back down and inhaled a worried breath.

Peter crept into the hallway, making sure to keep his back to the lockers so that he easily see in front and behind him. First things first, he couldn’t save the day if he was Peter Parker. He needed to find some sort of way to hide his identity.

This was new territory for him.

He quietly opened his locker and pulled out a baseball cap. It didn’t do much to hide his face, but it did make him feel a little better. Closing his locker, he sighed unsure of what to do now. He opened his phone and pulled up Mr. Stark’s number.

**To: Mr. Stark**

** _There’s a situation down at Midtown. Could really use some help…. and my suit._ **

** **

Satisfied, he pressed send and leaned back onto his locker. That seemed like the only thing he could possibly do to help this situation. What he should do next is slowly and quietly creep back into his classroom and sit with his friends. That was something Tony and May would want him to do. But that wasn’t Peter and it certainly wasn’t something Peter was about to do.

As if answering his calling, someone made a noise in the bathroom. He licked his lips and approached the door, pulling his cap down so that his eyes were slightly covered. With a deep breath, he pushed the door open and walked quietly inside. It didn’t make much sense for the wielder of the gun to be in the bathroom, unless he or she had to take a leak so Peter was pretty sure that he was fairly safe. Either way, his brow started to sweat and he wiped it away.

“H-hello?” He called, pushing open the first stall. “I-I’m not h-here to hurt you but I know you’re in here.”

The stall at the back of the bathroom flung open with a bang and Peter jumped, taking a step backwards. “_Parker_?”

Peter breathed a sigh of relief before scrunching his nose. “What are you doing in here?”

“I was in here when the announcement happened. I-I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Everyone in the hallway was running and I thought that meant he was in the hallway so I just… hid in here and waited for someone to save me.”

Peter nodded his head and for the first time since he saw Flash stomp out of the bathroom stall, he took in his appearance. The boy had clearly been crying; not extensively, but at least a little bit. Peter bit his lip and looked down at his feet sensing the older boy’s disappointment.

“What are _you_ doing?”

Peter bit his lip again. “I uh… well, I just snuck out.”

Flash opened his mouth before shutting it again, trying to find the right words to say. “You snuck out?”

Peter nodded.

“You snuck out of your locked classroom?”

Once more, Peter nodded.

“You snuck out of your locked classroom during an active shooter?”

Peter groaned and threw his head back being unable to come up with anything that could realistically explain his predicament. Why did the universe put him into these types of situations? “I-I had to pee, Flash.”

“Then go.”

“Go….” Peter nodded before furrowing his eyebrows. “Go where?”

Flash glared at Peter before motioning towards one of the urinals. “To the bathroom, Parker. If you felt the need to risk your life, it must have been an emergency.”

“R-right…” Peter positioned himself in front of the urinal and unzipped his pants. Flash stood by the sink and looked at his phone, scrolling through something that was making him chuckle. Peter wasn’t sure what could possibly be on his phone that was making him calm enough to laugh when Peter wasn’t even calm enough to pee. With a sigh, he zipped his pants back up and made a beeline for the sink.

“You didn’t go.”

“I…. can’t pee with an audience.” Peter managed, rolling his eyes at himself as he washed his hands. He didn’t normally wash his hands after peeing but he didn’t really want to face Flash yet. The embarrassment of his proclamation was certainly not about to be forgotten by Flash.

When Peter was finished, he wiped the water off onto his pants. As he opened his mouth to tell Flash that they should stay here and wait, they heard another gunshot sound followed by a few screams. A door slammed shut and Peter heard footsteps getting closer to the bathroom they were standing in. Flash tensed and began to pace, his footsteps loud and heavy.

“Flash, you need to stop.” Peter whispered sternly, putting his ear to the door. The footsteps were still approaching but far enough away that he knew they had some time. “_Stop. Stomping.”_

*

Tony Stark walked through the office building, sharing smiles with people he didn’t remember the names of before entering an office he knew well. It had used to be his. Pepper turned and offered him a small smile, taking the phone away from her face to briefly tell him to poor her some coffee. He happily obliged.

“Yes, Francine, I understand your concern but-.” Tony placed the mug of coffee in front of her and sat down in the seat across from her, taking the time to play with some of the office toys she had on her desk. She smiled as she sipped her warm coffee.

Happy burst into the room, causing both Tony and Pepper to startle, Pepper spilling some of her coffee onto her desk. “Jesus, Happy… is there a problem with the copier?”

Happy ignored Tony’s sarcastic comment as he reached into his pocket for his handkerchief. Without much thinking, he walked over to the desk and started to clean up the little bit of coffee that was on the table.

Once the work was completed, he took a step back and looked at Pepper and Tony with concern. “There’s a school shooting in progress.”

“A school sh-.” Tony started, before stopping and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look, Happy, that’s more of a local law enforcement thing to handle. There’s not much I can do.”

“Francine, I’ll have to call you back.” Pepper mentioned, sighing as she hung up the phone. Getting a hold of Francine had not been easy and she knew it would be another week or two of phone tag before they were able to have another conversation. “Happy, shootings happen all over the country every day. It’s hardly something that we can afford to expend resources to every time it happens.”

Tony nodded, happy with the professional tone his wife was taking. “Thanks for alerting us, buddy, but we gotta let the police have _something_ to do.”

“It’s at MidTown.” Happy asserted, pulling his phone out for what had to have been the fiftieth time in the last hour. Still no urgent messages.

Tony frowned as he tried to think of where he had heard that name before. Pepper seemed to have some clue because she gasped and put her hands to her mouth quickly before looking at Tony.

Happy rolled his eyes as he looked at Tony. “Peter goes there. Jesus, do you even pay attention to the kid?”

Tony whipped his phone out faster than he had ever reacted to anything in his life and started scrolling through his messages. As predicted, there was one from none other than Peter Parker, fondly in his phone as _underoos. _

“The kid can handle himself. He puts himself in these situations every day, does he not?” Pepper offered as she wheeled her chair back and stood up. She picked up some files and walked over to her cabinet to sort them herself, all the while trying to keep her breath even. Peter had become something of a little nephew to her over the last few weeks.

“He doesn’t have his suit.”

“He doesn’t have his -.” Happy started to repeat, putting his hand to his head and beginning to pace back and forth. “Oh dear God, what are we going to do?!”

“For starters, you’re going to stop practicing your audition for _General Hospital_.” Tony spat as he stood up. “Then we’re going to get in the car and drive down to queens to grab the kid’s suit.”

“Tony, I-.” Pepper started, before cutting herself off. “Be careful.”

“No promises.” Tony responded before he kissed her cheek and started to walk towards the door. “But I’ve dealt with aliens so I feel pretty confident I’ll arrive back in one piece.”

Pepper smiled and watched him go. She was always watching him go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am only posting this chapter so early because I am so happy with all of the comments. Thank you so much to all of you who commented. It truly means a lot! 
> 
> The next chapter might take a few days to be posted. I have to reread through the story and fix some stuff. I'm not too happy with the first draft quite yet and want to make sure it's perfect (or as close to perfect as possible) before sharing it. 
> 
> Thanks again for all of the comments.


	3. Hour Three

**9:25 – 10:25 am**

May had been ushered into the hallway and apologized to as her interview had been cut short and rescheduled for a later date. To say she was annoyed at the inconvenience would be an understatement, but still all she could manage to be at this moment was worried. Peter was Peter and well, if given the choice to save a kid or keep himself safe, she knew there was no doubt that he’d pick the former. It was who he was as a person – who he had always been.

A nurse who looked to be a little older than her approached her carefully and placed a soft hand onto May’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, are you looking for someone in particular?”

“N-no.” May stuttered, not fully knowing what it was that she was supposed to do in this situation. “I just had an interview and well, it got cut short – Hey, do you know anything about the shooting?”

“EMS is on the scene but nobody has exited the building yet.” The nurse murmured, turning to watch the chaos along with May. There were nurses running around trying to get everything in order. Patients were moved to the hall to make room for potential trauma. “There have been two sets of gunshots, though, so it’s only a matter of time, I suppose.”

May nodded. Law enforcement hadn’t entered the school yet which meant the shooter was still free to do whatever it is he or she wanted. Inhaling deeply and suddenly as if to try to force her brain to start working again, May turned towards the nurse. “Is there anything I can do to help? I’ve been a nurse at NY Pres in Queens for 7 years.”

“There are extra scrubs in the locker room just down the hall. We will need help with transferring patients to other floors.” The woman responded as she pointed down the hall towards a door with a coded lock. “You’ll fit in quite nicely here. I’m Trish.”

May smiled and extended her hand. “May.”

“If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Once you’re changed, you can head to the nurse’s station and ask for what to do. I’ll tell them to expect you.” Trish said hurriedly as she started to retreat towards where a patient and his family were angrily wondering why it was they had to move rooms. “Oh! 783956 is the code.”

May smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. She had something to do – something to distract her. Maybe she could handle this. Her phone started buzzing which caused her to startle. Sighing, she pulled it out of her pocket as she punched in the numbers that Trish had told her.

When she walked in, there was a doctor sitting at the table eating a salad. The television was turned to some morning talk show that May had seen once or twice. May smiled sweetly as the physician looked up from his seat. Whispering an apology, she answered the phone.

“Tony, I swear if anything happens to my kid-.”

The man on the other side of the phone scoffed and May couldn’t help but feel even angrier towards the man. No, none of this could really be blamed on Tony, but it felt good to have a place to direct it to all the same. “Last I checked an Avenger level threat on a random high school in New York was unlikely, so this-.” She pictured him waving frantically, “Not my fault.”

“You put these ideas in his head. _You_.” May spat, as she pulled a random pair of scrubs that seemed vaguely her size out of a container that read ‘extra’. She wandered into the bathroom and rested the phone between her shoulder and ear. “He’s going to try to go full sacrifice in there thanks to you.”

“Hey, he was Spiderman way longer than I’ve been in his life.” Tony muttered as May pulled her pants on. They were a little short, stopping just above her ankles but she didn’t want to waste too much time trying to find another pair. “All I did was make him safer.”

May scoffed, throwing her hair into a loose ponytail. “And are you keeping him safe now?”

“I am _trying_ to, actually.” Tony responded. It sounded like he was walking up steps. May could only hope that he was walking up the steps to Midtown as Iron Man, but something told her he wouldn’t be on the phone with her if he was. “I’m at your place to grab Peter’s suit. Is there a key hidden or should I break in?”

“Don’t you dare break in.” May warned.

“_Please_ May, a broken window is hardly anything you have to worry about.” Tony scoffed and May rolled her eyes. “The apartment value might what? Go down a dollar?”

“There is a key-.”

“Oh wait! Happy found the key.” Tony said proudly and May could practically see the smile on his face. He shouldn’t be smiling. “Well, actually, it seems like he knew where it was this whole time. What have _you_ _two been doing_?”

“Tony-.” She started harshly, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. “_Please-._”

Tony sighed. “I’m going to do everything I can.”

“Good.” May breathed before saying goodbye and ending the call. She looked at herself in the mirror and brushed her top down. There was a sense of pride in her that couldn’t be overlooked as she saw herself wearing the scrubs of a hospital she had dreamed to work in for many years.

With one last look at her reflection, she retreated into the hallway and prepared to busy herself until Peter arrived safe and sound. 

* 

Ned sat in the room, checking his phone periodically to see if he had any texts from Peter. Still none. After the second gunshot, the room had become a very depressing environment. Kids were crying and calling their parents to say goodbye. Some were taking pictures and sharing video messages to their snapchats or instagrams about the disaster.

Mr. Harrison seemed to be channeling his anxiety into whatever was in the binder he was holding.

Ned didn’t really have anyone to alert, nor did he want to. Sending goodbye messages meant he believed Peter had failed. And there was nobody he believed in more than his best friend.

“Wait a second.” Mr. Harrison muttered before he began to count his student’s heads. “Who’s-who’s missing?”

Ned’s eyes widened knowing that their cover was blown.

“Where’s Peter?”

All eyes turned to focus on Ned who was now trying to rack his brain for any and all excuses he could use. In reality, he just wanted everyone to stop staring at him.

“He uh… had to pee?”

* 

Peter breathed slowly, trying to search his brain for any kind of plan that would lead Peter and Flash to safety without having to reveal himself as Spiderman. It was getting harder and harder as they crept down the hallway. He had no idea where the shooter was.

“Listen, Parker.” Flash whispered. Peter was in front of him, crouched down and paying a lot of attention to the floor for some reason. It was like he was trying to hear steps that were miles away. All Flash could hear were the multitude of sirens that were blaring outside. “How do you know that the swat team or whoever is outside isn’t going to bust in here any second and think that _we’re_ the shooters?”

Peter stopped moving and narrowed his eyes. In all honesty, he hadn’t thought of that being a possibility, but any information Peter could supply that wasn’t ‘we’re going to be fine’ would probably send Flash on edge and that’s not something he wanted to have to deal with. He kept quiet instead.

“I mean, you’re wearing a baseball cap for Christ’s sake.” Flash grumbled, seemingly ignoring Peter’s inability to come up with a good response.

Peter sighed and licked his lips. “Look, man, there are closets and places that you could hide.”

“I just don’t really understand what your goal is right now, Parker.” Flash admitted with a shrug. “I’m not saying I’m going to stay here with you, but at least tell me what it is you plan to do because it seems like you’re trying to play savior.”

However true this was, Peter couldn’t let Flash know mostly due in part because the guy wouldn’t believe him anyway. “I’m _trying_ to get somewhere safe.”

“Like you said, there are closets and safe places everywhere.” Flash argued, pointing to a Janitor’s closet that was right behind him. When he had been dating Liz Allen, they had snuck in there a few times – not to do anything really. Just to kinda _be_, and to talk, and yeah, sometimes to make out.

Peter rolled his eyes and shook his head, knowing that his bully would just volley any lie he told back to him. It was weird for him to be in such close proximity to Flash without trying to convince himself to cower instead of fight back.

“Look, Flash,” Peter smirked. “_Eugene_ if you will… I know people, okay? I know people who can save us and I just need… well I just need to find out as much information as possible so that they can do their job.”

Flash rolled his eyes and watched as Peter continued to creep down the hall, albeit a little too dramatically for Flash’s liking. It seemed as though despite everything, Peter wasn’t afraid. Or at least not as obviously as Flash was. The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. “Oh right. Your boyfriend, Spiderman, yeah?”

“_No_.” Peter whispered back, putting his hand up to signal Flash to stop. However, Flash wasn’t paying as much attention to Peter as was promised and crashed into the guy. Peter took a few steps forward with wide eyes, flinching when he noticed Flash had accidentally pushed him intersection of 2 hallways. He looked to the right and saw a figure standing about 20 feet away.

Panic ran through Peter’s veins as he saw the figure turn to face him. Glancing back towards Flash – or rather where Flash had been – and saw the Janitor’s closet closing slowly and carefully. Even though he wanted to curse the guy for leaving him out to dry without seemingly having a care in the world, Peter was actually quite relieved.

He looked back towards the figure and noticed that he – or she – was quickly approaching him, gun drawn and pointed towards Peter’s head. “Uh… H-Hi, I’m uh… I’m Peter.”

Peter wasn’t really sure why he was introducing himself to someone who seemed to want to cause as much hurt throughout their school as they possibly could, but here he stood, putting effort into making sure his tone was polite and warm. He wanted to roll his eyes at himself but refrained fearing that the person’s eyesight was better than his own and might become insulted or unnerved.

However, Peter’s attitude didn’t seem to have much pull in the person’s head as his only plan seemed to be to cause panic and pain. And what better way to cause panic than to fire the gun in his hand?

Peter cursed and dodged as many bullets as he could before he started to run down an adjacent hallway, being mindful not to choose the one he knew Flash was occupying. It wasn’t until he was far enough away that he realized there was a trail of blood following him. Cursing, he bent down and rolled up his pant leg, getting woozy when he looked to see a small hole in his shin.

“Oh jeez.” He whispered, reaching down to touch it, hoping maybe it was just a figure of his imagination and not actually happening. When he found the area to be wet and warm, he cursed again. So it was actually happening. Well that’s just great. “What to do… what to do…”

Looking back towards where he came from, he could see the trail started from where he was originally standing. The blood was still dripping and he knew that no matter how fast he ran, the shooter would be able to find him easily. Biting his lip, he pulled his sweatshirt off and tried his best to wrap it around the injury without causing too much pain.

“_Fuck_.” He winced as the area began to sting more than it had been before. His eyes watered as his mouth filled with saliva. “No, no, _no. _No vomit.”

Peter gagged as he looked at his hands and saw his own blood. He started to sweat and breathe heavily, trying his best to calm himself down. As he managed to swallow some bile back down, he heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps getting closer.

“No time to breathe.” Peter muttered sarcastically before standing back up and limping off down the hall, turning around only to see if his blood was still trailing. When he saw it wasn’t, he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief before continuing.

His limping got less frequent as adrenaline took over. Breathing heavily, he turned a corner and ran into someone. Flinching, he took a few steps back, making sure he was steady before looking up and seeing someone dressed in an entirely black outfit.

He sighed in relief as he saw the letter SWAT printed on the man’s vest. Maybe it was time to let the police take over. Spiderman could sit this one out. “Th-they’re back there.”

The man motioned (something that Peter would have to try to convince Mr. Stark to start doing with the rest of the avengers) and two more guys in suits revealed themselves from behind lockers and slowly crept forwards with their guns drawn. The two of them continued creeping past them down the hall. Peter watched with interest as they seemed to calculate each step they took and just _knew_ where the other was going to go. It was impressive to say the least.

The man he had bumped into introduced himself as Larry Bingingham, which tested every bit of self-control Peter had in him not to laugh. He wasn't even sure if it was funny or not. Seemed like an unfortunate name, though. “P-Peter. Peter Parker.”

“Ah… so you’re the one who Tony Stark is raving about outside.” Larry nodded his head and looked Peter up and down. “What’d you do to get on Iron Man’s radar?”

“Intern.” Peter motioned towards himself, wincing as he put too much pressure onto his right foot. He added, “To Mr. Stark… not Iron Man. To be Iron Man’s intern you’d need what? Superpowers?” Peter laughed nervously. “Which obviously I don’t have because here I am, walking through the halls of my school… useless.”

“Alright Peter Parker.” Larry started, opening his eyes wide before narrowing them again as if he couldn’t believe that he’d been given the job of babysitting a spaz like Peter. Then he turned his attention to his two colleagues. “I’m going to need you to keep walking down that hall, yeah? Be quiet and fast. There is a door just up there to your left that if you walk through, you’ll make it outside.”

Peter wanted to argue that he knew that as he had been coming to this school for years but refrained. There was no use trying to make powerful men understand that they didn’t need to explain _everything_. May had taught him that. She’d also warned him that if she ever caught him doing that, she’d rip his arm off and explain to him why it hurt so badly. Nevertheless, he nodded and started limping in the direction he had been told.

Just as he reached the doors, he heard several gunshots and turned to see what was happening. It almost saddened him to think that the kid who thought this was his last option was killed so readily, but when he turned and saw Larry laying on the ground in a pool of blood, Peter expelled the thought from his mind.

“Goddamn it.” He muttered as he turned to his left. He could see the sun shining and multiple people standing around looking into the building while talking into walkie-talkies. Whether or not they could see him was unknown.

He looked down at his throbbing leg and wished he could go outside, but he knew that if he did that he’d have to go to the hospital. Even if he managed to get to Mr. Stark before the EMS got to him, Tony would not let him put the suit on and come back into the school before getting looked at. With the rapid rate at which he healed, he was sure that he was probably in need of surgery to get the bullet out which meant there’d be no way that Spiderman could come back and help to rescue his friends. Not that he could be Spiderman now, but the thought stood.

If they couldn’t have Spiderman then he was going to make sure they had Peter Parker, whatever that meant.

Groaning, and throwing his head back, he turned his back to the outside world and continued down the hall, turning into the Nurse’s office. First thing’s first he needed disinfectant and an actual bandage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	4. Hour Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the victims of Dayton and El Paso. I wish our government did more to protect you.

**10:25 – 11:25 am**

“I’m sorry, you did _what_ now?”

As Flash closed the closet door, he found none other than Betty Brant hiding behind the mop bucket. At first he had been relieved that even though Peter wasn’t around anymore he still had someone around, but then Betty had began to talk and well, she didn’t seem to be shutting up any time soon.

Flash shrugged his shoulders. “I ran in here. What about it?”

“You _left_ Peter out there!” She scoffed, throwing her hands up as if it had been an obvious answer and what anybody would be thinking about.

“If you had been out there, you would have done the same thing.” Flash licked his lips and blushed. He may have been an asshole on most days but he considered Parker to be on his team out in that hallway. It’s not like he ran away out of some malicious urge in his body that wanted Peter to die. He just… well he was scared. “Besides, we don’t know that he was hit. He’s fast. He might have gotten away.”

Betty licked her lips and crossed her arms. “So Peter, standing in the middle of the hallway, managed to get away from not _one_ round of bullets, but two?”

“Y-yeah… maybe.” Flash offered lamely, sighing as he heard himself.

“I know you’re a bully and hate the kid but don’t you think leaving him there to die is a little much?” She taunted, her eyes filling with tears as the reality of the situation seemed to sink in. Flash mirrored her look and shuddered. Not only had he left the guy out in the hallway, but he had been the one to push him, albeit accidentally, but it was a push nonetheless.

“If you were there, you would have-.” Flash’s voice cracked. He didn’t trust it so he left his thought at that.

“Yeah” Betty breathed out. “Probably.”

They both took a minute or two to breathe – neither of them really knew how long they stood there in silence. At some point, both of their breathing leveled. Neither of them wanted to address the thing they had both been thinking.

Anybody with an ounce of logic may have left Peter out there, but Peter would never have left anybody else.

*

If wrapping his leg up had been painful, taking the bandage off felt like someone had put his leg in a blender. Moaning as he bit his lip, he carefully and slowly started to peel the portions of his sweatshirt that had gotten stuck off. It burned. It stung. It felt like he was ripping his skin off. Bile rose in his throat and he fought to keep it down.

He bit his lip and pulled his sweatshirt until he tasted blood in his mouth. With a grunt, he stopped, groaning as he leaned against a wall and slid down. He took another quick look at his shin and frowned. The sweatshirt wasn’t even halfway off. With another frown, he looked away.

The nurse’s office was set up with two large windows facing out into the hallway. Across the hall was the front office where the announcements were made from. Within that room, he was sure somebody needed medical attention – he hoped they _still _needed medical attention.

Groaning, he grabbed a hold of his sweatshirt and pulled as hard as he could. Like a bandaid. He had never been great at handling his own injuries.

The motion brought tears to his eyes and within seconds he was hunched over throwing up the contents of his stomach onto the floor beside him. After the whole plane crash incident, Tony Stark had put a lot of care into making sure that Peter didn’t get too hurt, so it had been a while since Peter had felt pain like this.

As he leaned back up, he looked down and saw the end of the bullet because of course he did. There was no way that God or whoever would give him a little bit of a break. Nope. He was Peter Parker after all – the punching bag of the universe.

If Aunt May had taught him anything – and she taught him a lot – it was that a bullet needs to be removed to prevent infection. Well, actually her lesson focused on splinters and bee stingers but he imagined this was the same principle. His lip was raw, so he grabbed his sweatshirt and bit down on that instead as he started to reach for the bullet. His hands were shaky and he wasn’t sure if it was due to the pain or his inability to calm himself down. Either way, it was making it a little bit more difficult. Still, through sobs that were muffled by his sweatshirt, he managed to pull the tiny bullet fragment out of his leg.

He gave himself a few minutes to cry deciding that if nothing else, he deserved this.

*

“That’s the third round of shots since we’ve gotten here!” Happy yelled, shaking his arms wildly into the air. Tony looked over at him and sighed. The man was frantic: pale and sweaty and just would not for the life of him _stay still_. Being head of security was a lot of stress and Pepper had thought giving him a demotion masked as a promotion would help, but it seemed as though Peter was a lot harder to manage than anyone thought. Tony should have known. Since he met the kid, _he_ was starting to question his own cardiac health.

“Would you calm down?” Tony asked, taking a bite of the sandwich they had picked up from a shop across the street. Really, Tony had wanted to chew off the Chief of Police’s face a while more, but Happy was getting worked up and Tony’s solution to that was some food.

Happy stopped pacing long enough to gawk at him. “How can you be eating at a time like this?”

“Easy.” Tony smirked. “I didn’t have breakfast.”

Happy’s sure to be aggressive rant about how Tony didn’t care about anyone but himself was interrupted by Tony’s phone going off. Clicking his tongue, Tony put the sandwich onto the top of his car and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He was a little disappointed to see a text from Parker instead of seeing Parker running out of the building in search of his suit.

**From: Underoos**

** _Busy. Shot. SWAT down. Sorry. _ **

** **

“Well shit.” Tony muttered, walking quickly up to the Police Chief. Happy followed in stride after finding a trashcan to put the billionaire’s trash into. He wasn’t sure why he had noticed in that moment something so mundane. “Yo Wilbur.”

The Chief of Police rolled his eyes and sent the two FBI agents on their way to what Tony assumed to be more work on trying to find out who exactly they were dealing with. “That a joke?”

“Pigs. Police. Look, I’m a little stressed to come up with anything better.” Tony sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t know what exactly he was supposed to do in this moment. He knew what he would do had it been 5 years ago, but had it been 5 years ago, he wouldn’t be here. What he needed to do was what Pepper would do, but she wasn’t here to tell him.

“I’m busy, Stark, as you can see.” He waved his hands around them. The frown Tony was sporting deepened.

“I hear the men that were sent in there are down. That true?”

The Chief sighed and motioned for Tony to follow him to a place where nobody could overhear them. “We lost contact about 20 minutes ago.”

“Well send somebody else in then.”

“We can’t go sacrificing everyone like you guys do. There are protocols to be followed.” The Chief started and Tony was sure there was more to what he was saying but quite frankly he didn’t want to hear it.

“My kid’s in there!”

“There are men out here who want nothing more than to save the day. They have wives. They have kids. It’s my job to make sure that whatever they do, they get to go home at the end of the day.”

Tony groaned, knowing there was nothing he could do be retreat back towards his car. Maybe Pepper had some sort of plan. When he turned around, he saw Happy standing there with a dumb look on his face. “What?”

“You love Peter.” Happy replied.

Tony sighed. “I meant my kid as in my intern. You know what? How about you don’t be a jackass today. Let’s try that, yeah?”

Happy nodded his head and followed behind, hoping that when they got to wherever Tony was leading, he’d be filled in on some amazing plan to help Peter – whether that be through extracting him from the building or supplying him with his suit. 

* 

Peter groaned as he stood up. He’d been crouched behind the nurse’s desk for a little over 20 minutes waiting for the pain to subside or for footsteps to start approaching. Neither happened and he was growing impatient and a little tired. It was better to move now than to fall asleep and be unable to move later. Limping now that his adrenaline was practically at zero once more, he maneuvered around the office easily. He grabbed his backpack and threw some more bandages and a water bottle inside, taking note of an extra pack of web fluid that he had left in there accidentally.

Once he made it to the door, he stopped moving and pressed his ear against it. He wasn’t sure if it made any difference, but it did make him feel slightly more at ease when he was left with silence. Opening the door slowly, he peaked his head outside and looked in both directions. Nobody seemed to be around.

“Perfect.” He almost smiled as he walked, or rather limped, confidently into the hallway and right up to the front office’s doors. When he opened that door, he heard a muffled heartbeat. Rapid and frantic, but muffled all the same. “H-hello?”

Peter looked to his right as he heard something shuffle. He wanted to groan at the fact that he was clearly going to have to investigate, but refrained knowing whoever was in here with him was scared. The desk and floor in front of him were a mess. There were papers everywhere, tossed about as if the windows had remained open during a tornado. He glanced at them briefly and noticed they were a bunch of student schedules. Licking his lips, he continued around until he saw a woman sitting on the floor panting.

“M-Ms. Higgins?” He questioned, bending over to make sure he was eye level with her. She was sitting there, her eyes glued to someone across the room. Peter turned, but there didn’t seem to be anything of important or significance there. She must have been in shock. “H-Hey. It’s Peter. Parker. Peter Parker.”

She made some sort of noise in understanding, before her eyes shifted and landed on him. She had a bit of blood on her forehead, but it didn’t look like it was hers. He took some time to examine the rest of her. Nothing seemed wrong – well not physically anyway. “Peter.”

“Yeah. Peter.” He replied before licking his lips and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Ms. Higgins, what happened?”

“Came in. Normal day.” She started, her breath somewhat shaky as if she didn’t quite trust that they were alone. “Morita called for lockdown and then-.”

Peter patted her back as she began to cry. “Is he okay?”

The woman shook her head and pointed across a tiny hallway where the Principal’s office door was open. Morita was sitting in his chair, his head limp and to the side. There was blood coming from a bullet hole that was directly in the middle of the man’s forehead. Peter let out a shaky breath and looked back at Ms. Higgins.

“Then what happened?” He whispered.

“They came in here and-.”

“They?”

“A group of 3 students.”

“Do you know their names?”

Ms. Higgins sighed and shook her head. “I see a lot of kids, Peter.”

“Right, yeah of course.” He stuttered, a small smile gracing his features as he motioned for her to continue. “Duh.”

“They came in here and demanded to see a student’s schedule.”

“Which student?”

“Eugene Thompson.”

Peter’s eyes widened and he leaned backwards. Of course Flash was their target. The kid fit the character to a tee. Malevolent bully who spent more time picking on kids than he did actually learning. Peter would be lying if he said that he never thought of showing Flash just how strong he was, but the kid didn’t deserve to die. At least not in Peter’s eyes.

“Can I see that schedule?” Peter asked. Higgins gave him a worried look before pointing towards the computer. Quietly, but quickly, Peter moved the mouse so that the monitor was brought to life. He squinted as the bright light met his eyes.

Ms. Higgins stayed put, finding comfort in her hiding spot, even if the criminals knew where she was. As soon as they had their information, they had allowed her to run free. She didn’t, though. Instead, she had run in to see if Mr. Morita was okay. That had been a mistake. She knew no matter how many hours she sat in therapy, that sight was never going to leave her memory.

“Well it’s a good thing that Flash isn’t-.” The young student who had entered her office and taken her out of her trance mumbled. She didn’t know who he was but he seemed nice enough. Caring. Nosy if anything. “_Fuck_.”

She bit the inside of her mouth to prevent herself from scolding him for cursing. “What is it?”

“Flash is supposed to be in gym class.” The kid muttered, a worried look etched on his face. He was too young to worry. They all were. Ms. Higgins shivered at the thought of how much this event was going to change each of these kid’s lives. “MJ is in the gym.”

* 

Tony Stark opened his phone to another text message.

**From Underoos: **

** _Principal deal. Going to gym. _ **

** **

**From Underoos:**

** _Oh and South Window. Present for ya. _ **

** **

Tony looked up and saw a very frail woman fast hanging from a window. There didn’t seem to be much holding her up, and if he didn’t know any better, he’d assume she just tied together a few pieces of rope and lowered herself down. News vans were going crazy at the sight of a hostage being released.

Tony stayed still as he heard one cop tell another one that there had been a note in the lady’s hand. On it was written:

_I found this for you. You’re welcome. _

_Take care of her. _

_-SpiderMan_

Tony smiled because while everyone else was focusing on the woman and how to get the web fluid loose enough to release her, he was staring past her into the window she was dangling from. You could just make out the shadow of a boy standing there. The kid had a smile on his face as the woman was cut out of his web and provided with medical care. Quickly, the boy turned away from the front of the school and retreated back out of sight and into the school.

Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .... and just like that, we're halfway there :) 
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	5. Hour Five

**11:25 – 12:25 pm**

“Parker said we had to _move_.” Flash repeated for what could have been the tenth time. He wasn’t sure. Betty scoffed once more and boy, was Flash getting annoyed at that noise. There wasn’t anything that could irritate him more than the sound of Betty’s sassy exhale. “I-I mean we should move then.”

“Peter also got shot.” Betty reminded him, and Flash was reminded by some miracle that there _was_ something more annoying than Betty’s scoffs and sighs and groans of irritation; it was her voice and her tone.

Flash groaned and threw his hands up out of pure exasperation. His head was starting to pound with almost the same intensity of his heart. “Well, we can’t just stay here. We’re sitting ducks.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Peter said-.”

“Forget about Peter!” Betty screeched causing Flash to jump. She may have been annoying but she was the only one in the room who seemed to be able to keep their emotions in check. When he looked over, she was sitting with her head in her hands panting. After a few seconds, she all but whispered, “Peter may be the smartest in our grade but he’s also an _idiot._”

Flash nodded. He had to agree, actually. Peter had gotten to go to DC and show off his brains on a national stage, but he’d disappeared. Peter had gotten Liz to himself and left her alone at Homecoming. Everything Peter seemed to do was the opposite of what Flash would have done. Peter seemingly didn’t even try to follow Flash into the closet. In a way, Peter had rescued him.

“You shouldn’t mistake bravery for stupidity.” Flash whispered, taking a seat next to Betty.

“I can’t believe you’re sticking up for Peter Parker.”

“I’ve grown.” Flash smiled, taking a deep breath. It came out shaky, but he felt calmer than he had all day. “I think we have to listen to Penis Parker.”

Betty motioned for the door. “You go ahead.”

* 

Peter slowly approached the gym doors, pulling his backpack out once again to grab another vile of web fluid. He pulled his hood over his head, made sure his baseball cap was secure.

_Okay. Okay. Okay. _

He wasn’t really sure what to do now that he was here. He had spent the majority of the last 20 minutes just trying to work up the nerve to walk here. It had been easy at first, although painful. The adrenaline that came with saving Ms. Higgins had accelerated his movements and pushed out the anxiety provoking thoughts.

But once he had made it a few yards, he was quick to second guess himself. Maybe he wasn’t ready for this type of threat. Yeah, he had stopped armed gunmen before but that was different and definitely not safe, even with his suit. Being just Peter Parker was a step down. Still, he marched on – or rather limped.

He took a deep breath and stood up to try to see through the window in the door. It wasn’t the first time he had been in such a situation. Back in the very first week of freshman year, right before Ben died, he’d spied on none other than Liz Allen. At the time, she was dressed in her gym clothes and looked to be having some fun playing volleyball. Now, though, he was met with a much different site.

Two guys were pacing the floor, about half court; their guns limp at their sides. Peter didn’t really know guns well - had never been interested in them and so had never taken the time to learn about them – but he could tell that they were semi-automatic, if not by how they looked but by the amount of shots that the gunman had fired off at him in the hallway. Biting his lip, he sat back down.

Ms. Higgins said there had been 3 guys.

Maybe he had missed one? Just as he was about to stand back up and look through the window again, his phone started buzzing. Thankfully, he had put it on silent. He struggled to reach it in his pocket to at the very least turn it off, but saw Mr. Stark’s picture flash on the screen.

Reluctantly, he put the phone to his ear. “H-Hey Mr. Stark. I’m a little busy right now. Can I call you back?”

“I don’t think you know just how much your aunt is going to hurt me for this.” Tony grumbled. Peter could hear the sirens behind him. They were deafening, cutting through the air like blades. Peter winced. May.

“I couldn’t leave.”

Tony paused, giving Peter a second to gather his thoughts and stand up. Still just two guys standing in the middle of the gym. Behind them, on the bleachers, were a row of about 20 kids and Peter pushed the third gunman out of his mind. That was a problem that could wait a little longer.

“Oh, see, but I think you could have.” Tony began, and Peter braced himself for the trainload of words that were no doubt going to leave his mentor’s mouth. He didn’t pay much attention though, because just two kids from the end was MJ, staring at her hands with a distant look in her eyes. “Peter!”

Peter snapped out of it and sat back down. “Y-Yes M-Mr. Stark?”

“You have two working legs, yes?”

Peter inhaled sharply. “Well, about that… I-.”

“Please tell me you are not _this_ stupid, Parker.”

Peter gulped as he closed his eyes tightly and put a hand to his forehead. He was sweaty and the cold touch of his hand made him feel a little better – a little more grounded. Still, his breathing hitched and he had to bite his lip to distract himself from the thoughts that would only make him cry. He couldn’t break down now. Too many kids could get hurt. _MJ_, one of his closest friends could get hurt.

When he opened his eyes, there was a movement at the corner of his eyes. Turning rapidly, he saw Flash walking over to him, looking like he saw a ghost. “Flash…”

“That bully? Is he the one behind this? I swear to all that is-.”

Peter interrupted. “Shut up, Tony.”

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Had he had time to think them through, there’s no way he ever would have said them. He blushed furiously as he tried to piece together an apology, but no words left his lips.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.” Tony spat, causing’s Peter’s blush to deepen. “You better get your ass out here. You need the suit.”

“I need the suit.” Peter repeated through baited breath, his eyes not leaving Flash’s. The other boy seemed determined to do something. Peter hoped he was determined to jump out of a window and get out of trouble. “I just... I can’t come out. I need you to bring it to me. 

“_Peter. Parker.” _The way the man said it led Peter’s mouth to become dry. 

“I’m by the gym.” He let out before hanging up the phone. Pushing the thought of an angry Tony Stark out of his mind, he let himself focus solely on Flash Thomson. The other boy had caught up to him at this point and had slowly sat himself own. Their shoulders were touching forcing Peter to think back on all of the other times they had touched in their lives. How different all of those times were from this moment. He wasn’t afraid of Flash, or afraid that he might accidentally hurt Flash. He was actually a little comforted by his presence. Maybe it was possible to take down the shooters together.

Only Peter knew that wasn’t possible. Flash couldn’t be here. Nobody could be here but Peter – especially Flash. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m helping you.” Flash replied easily, glancing up towards the windows nervously as if he might want to check to see what was behind the doors. “Well, actually, I didn’t know-.” 

“You were safe.”

Flash bit his lip. “But we didn’t think you were.”

“So you didn’t come out here to help me.” Peter retorted. “You didn’t think I was alive.”

“H-How are you alive?” Flash asked in a whisper. Peter shrugged his shoulders with a sigh.

“Run fast-” was all he could think to say before his breath hitched as he watched Flash stand up and look through the window. Peter reached up and pulled him down harder than he had meant to.

Flash looked over at Peter with wide eyes before seemingly collecting himself. He didn’t walk all the way down here to get shoved around by Penis Parker. Although, now that he was here, he didn’t really know _why_ he had walked all the way down here. The entire way had been filled with doubts and second guesses and the sound of his father’s voice practically begging him to be more. More than what; Flash didn’t know.

“What do you plan on doing?” He asked when no other words came to his head. Well, that’s a lie. A ton of words came to his head. _I’m sorry. How are you alive? Why are you so fast? Why are you so calm? We’re never getting out of here, are we? _

Peter licked his lips and for the first time since Flash had bumped into him in the bathroom, Peter Parker seemed unsure. And remarkably enough, it was the first time he seemed scared.

“Look, Flash. There are _things_ you don’t know and I can’t tell you them.” Peter answered, trying his best to convey his regret. “You can walk out the front doors, though and you should. You shouldn’t be here right now.” 

“And you should?”

Scratching his head in frustration, Peter leaned back into the door. His current attitude was getting harder and harder to maintain with Flash’s stubbornness rearing its ugly head. Peter groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You have to go, Flash.”

“What did Stark want?”

“Flash, I-.”

“I’m not going if you don’t.”

Peter blinked and turned to face the boy. If it was any other day, _any other incident_, he might have been touched the Flash’s bravery – flattered that of all people, Flash wasn’t to help _him_. It was noble and kind and not something that Peter had ever seen Flash ever do. Flash was Flash’s biggest fan, yet here he was trying to help, and selflessly at that.

But today wasn’t any other day and it wasn’t any other incident. There were three – well two – actual psychopaths wielding guns less than 6 yards away from where they were sitting. Their friends and classmates were sitting there terrified wondering if all of their studying was in vain. And Peter was outside of the room with the capabilities to help but was frozen 

Where was Tony?

“Parker, did you hear me?”

Maybe it was the tone Flash had used or maybe how long it was taking his mentor to get there or maybe just the events of the day finally catching up to him, but Peter was annoyed. No, he was beyond annoyed. He was angry.

“They’re here because of you!” Peter snapped, wincing as he heard some sort of a commotion behind the door. He couldn’t tell yet just what it was, but couldn’t check because there was a chance that he had been heard and if he was, then they were going to be coming over to the door any second now.

Flash sat still, his face a cross between shock and devastation. Peter felt bad for him, he did, but there wasn’t any time to dwell. It was imperative that Flash leave this second.

“I’m – I’m sorry but you _have_ to go.” Peter all but whispered. He lifted his hand before pausing for a second. He wasn’t really sure how to do this. How do you comfort someone who had been so cruel to you? With a sigh, he continued to reach forward until he was patting Flash on the shoulder. “You’re in danger.”

“How do you know that this is because of me?”

Peter licked his lips. They really were running out of time. Mr. Stark would be here any second now and there was no way Peter could change into the suit as fast as he should if Flash was still here. “They got your schedule from Ms. Higgins.”

Flash was pale. He was shaking and pale. Peter had never seen him this worried before except that time that Sarah Haden hacked his instagram and posted some embarrassing pictures that he had taken a few months ago. “So they’re – this is all – we’re all in danger because of me?”

“Flash, I-.” Peter started before somebody turning the corner interrupted him. He sighed in relief. Tony was finally here. He could finally save the day.

When he turned in the direction of the footsteps, though, he came face to face with whom he had presumed to be the third gunman and the guy who had shot at him. Peter gulped and stood up slowly, his hands raised in the air. Flash followed his actions even slower, noticing for the first time the delicacy Peter used when stepping on his one leg.

So Peter did get shot. How was he not still bleeding?

“Well look who it is.” The guy bellowed, walking towards them with a newfound purpose. 

Peter didn’t recognize him before. He’d been too far away. But standing in front of him was none other than Zach Bates, a sophomore who started at MidTown a few weeks ago. Peter, being a junior, hadn’t really crossed paths with the kid but everybody in the school had heard about him peeing his pants during an assembly on his second day. He didn’t really believe the stories, especially after he found out that Flash had been the one sitting next to him. He assumed Flash had spilled water on him rather than the stupid story that got back to him. But the rumor mill wasn’t really logic-bound.

Peter felt Flash tense up, but didn’t spend much time focusing on it because Zach was still approaching them with his gun drawn. From this range and with nowhere to go, Peter knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun him this time.

“Peter Parker.” Zach muttered and Peter found himself wondering how the kid knew his name. “Nice of you to introduce yourself earlier. I’m Zach Bates.”

“I-I know.” Peter mumbled, his cheeks turning a bright red. “I uh.. I heard about… you know what? Doesn’t matter.”

Zach frowned and focused on Flash for the briefest of moments. There was the sound of a closing door behind them, which seemed to refocus all three of them.

Flash knew this wasn’t going to end well for him.

Zach knew he had to get the two boys into the gym before whoever just entered their school arrived.

Peter knew it was Tony who just walked into the building and he was sure as hell going to kill Peter when he realized Peter had entered the gym instead of waiting.

Peter just hoped Tony was given the chance.


	6. Hour Six

**12:25 – 1:25 pm**

For as long as Tony could remember, he had built an invisible shield around himself that could only be penetrated by select individuals. His mother, however quick she was to defend her husband, had been the first and only for a very long time. When she died, he had lost hope in ever being understood again. Rhodey came along eventually and taught Tony that there were other people outside of the familial obligation that would care about him and his safety. Then, of course, there was Pepper. 

Not only was Tony able to open up to these people, to let the flood gates clear the build-up of emotions, but Tony was able to somehow be there for them. It was weird having people who cared for him and he vowed to protect them at all costs.

Which of course came with a plethora of anxiety-provoking thoughts. _What if he couldn’t get to them in time? What if they left him after realizing he just wasn’t worth it? _

And now, even though Pepper and Rhodey were fine and miles away from this school, Tony was starting to feel that same anxiety start to swell within him, taking over. It only got worse as he rounded the corner and realized that Peter was not in the place he said he would be. Tony clutched the suit a little tighter.

Tony felt his knees buckle and he landed on the floor with a thud. He tried to get his bearings by forcing his fingers to tap lightly on the linoleum floor, but struggled to lift just one. They seemed content trying to push the floor farther down instead.

He could hear the voice of a small boy he had met years and years ago telling him to build something, but the faint sound was not helping him, which was unusual. Pulling himself out of the hole that his anxiety created was not easy but as soon as he pictured the kid, it normally grounded him enough to question why it was that he and Pepper were so adamant against having them.

He was not sure how long he was on the ground for but eventually his breathing slowed and he was able to see clearly.

“This kid is going to fucking kill me.” He muttered as he stood up slowly, wincing as his knees cracked. He picked up the Spidey suit and threw it over his shoulder, being as careful as he could not make a noise.

He approached the window and looked through it, spotting Peter sitting in the middle of the gym with some other kid to his right easily. He was sitting there looking more annoyed than anything, which brought a small smile to Tony’s face. The kid wasn’t freaking out. He wasn’t scared or at least it wasn’t overwhelming him. Tony could work with that.

“Okay…” Tony whispered shifting his gaze until he found the three gunmen standing a few feet away from Peter. They were waving their guns around dangerously, giving Tony the impression that they had never held them before today.

Tony glanced back at Peter, who was now interested in his leg more than anything. There was something coming out of the bottom of Peter’s pant leg. It was beige and thin. Whatever it was, it seemed to be causing Peter great discomfort. Licking his lips, Tony tried to get a closer look but was interrupted.

“Stark!” Someone called and Tony’s stomach nearly dropped out of his body. “We do not need Iron Man.”

Tony rushed to turn around, coming face to face with the Chief of Police and a few members of SWAT. He quickly shoved the suit behind his back and sheepishly grinned, not being able to think of anything to say. His focus was elsewhere trying to figure out what was poking out of Peter’s pant leg.

*

May watched the television, not being able to tear her eyes away, as a classroom full of students was lead out of the building by a member of SWAT. She had been watching the same string of events unfold for the 10 classrooms before it. None of the kids were Peter and part of her knew none of them would be Peter. It wasn’t really in Peter’s personality to be lead out of a building where kids were still in danger.

When she saw Ned exiting with Mr. Harrington, she knew her suspicions were true. Peter was still in the building and would most likely remain there until the shooter was lead out.

“You hear about the principal?” Trish asked as she entered the nurse’s lounge. A few other Emergency Room personnel were sitting around the table eating. Since most of their patients had been transferred to different floors and they were deferring all other incoming patients to other hospitals in the area, the ER was pretty empty. The patients remaining were just waiting for lab results or imaging.

May looked up and took a slow sip of her coffee. Nodding, she said, “It’s a shame, really.”

And it was a shame. Mr. Morita was an amazing principal. It wasn’t any sort of secret that Peter had been through a lot in his short 16 years on the Earth and with all of the trouble he had gotten into sophomore year… well, it wouldn’t have been much of controversy if Mr. Morita had expelled him. But he didn’t. Peter was left with a warning and some solid advice.

“They pronounced him at NY Pres.” Trish continued as she took the seat next to May. May nodded. It had been on the news a few minutes ago. They had sent him to NY Pres knowing that he wasn’t a trauma and only needed a doctor to pronounce him dead. It was a sad reality in the world they lived in.

“D-Do you know where they sent the first released hostage?” May asked.

Trish looked her over carefully, trying to decide why it was she seemed so invested in this story. Maybe she didn’t belong here. Maybe her old job truly was best for her. If this is how she handled every trauma, then being at one of the world’s most elite trauma centers wasn’t a good idea. “Room 8.”

“Thanks.” May mumbled as she rushed out of the nurse’s lounge. Trish made a mental note to mention to the chief that she wasn’t a good match. Anyone who got too involved with his or her patients just didn’t belong here.

*

Peter sat in the middle of the gym, looking out at all the kids who were staring at both him and Flash sadly; like the knew by getting caught in the halls, their days were numbers. He did his best to avoid eye contact with MJ in fear that she would somehow soil his plan before he even came up with it. Granted, in order for that to happen, he’d have to come up with a plan. Nothing was coming to mind though.

Peter looked over at Zach, who was standing with the other two shooters: a girl named Melissa and a senior boy named Scott. Peter had never met Melissa, had not even heard of her, but he knew Scott. His mom worked at NY Pres and had been friends with May. Well, Peter wasn’t really sure if friends was the right word. More like competitors. But Scott’s mom had been fired when they were in elementary school for stealing pain medication from the med room on numerous occasions. She had been sent to rehab, and that was the last Peter had heard anything from that family.

Flash was sitting beside him. They were close enough that Peter could feel Flash’s breathing. It was rapid and harsh and there was a heat radiating from him that Peter couldn’t ignore. Flash was scared beyond belief and a scared Flash had no place in this room. Peter knew that a scared Flash was an insecure Flash. It wouldn’t be long until the kid did something stupid like open his mouth.

That plan could not come fast enough.

Zach seemed to take offense to something that Melissa had said. She rolled her eyes and turned around, sending a pointed look towards the two boys. Peter squinted, trying his best to hear what they were saying, or at least read their lips. He made a mental note to practice that in the coming weeks.

If he made it out.

“Look,” One of the seniors in the class stood up from his spot on the bleachers. He put his hands up gracefully when he saw the three gun-wielding students aiming at him. Peter didn’t know who he was, but he did know that he was standing only 4 students down from where MJ was sitting. “Some of us have to go to the bathroom.”

“It’s been like _5_ hours.” Addie Clark added in exasperation. Peter could feel his brain combusting. What in the fuck did they think they were doing?

Addie was sitting 2 people down from MJ.

Peter looked at MJ, who was staring at him with a confused sort of look, like she was expecting him to do something. He remained motionless and looked away.

“And we’re hungry.” Addie added as if she just wanted Peter’s brain to explode.

Zach scoffed from where he stood by the basketball net. He cocked the gun he was holding and held it towards the unnamed senior and Addie. Peter didn’t need to turn around to know they sat back down nervously. Peter thanked the heavens.

“You are all just so entitled, aren’t you?” Melissa asked spitefully, taking several steps towards both the bleachers and towards where Peter and Flash were sitting.

Peter relented and turned towards MJ once again. Her eyes were still drilling holes into his head. The intensity of her gaze caused him discomfort. He licked his lips, smiled, and waved not knowing what else to do, but his actions caught the attention of Flash and Zach.

“Are you _that_ polite?” Zach asked, his voice carrying across the gym making Peter wince. “Or are you just stupid?”

“He’s just stupid.” Flash mumbled under his breath causing Peter to looked over at him and glare.

There were a few moments of unsettling silence before Peter heard Zach stomping over to where they were sitting. He crouched down with the tip of his gun pulling Flash’s face upwards to look at him. “What did you say?”

Flash, for whatever reason, seemed to get irritated at the idea of someone challenging him. Peter was unsure if the boy had forgotten what situation they were currently in or if he just truly was arrogant enough to start a fight. Either way, Peter wanted to hit him. Hard.

“I said-.” Flash began, his tone sharp and pointed.

Reluctantly, Peter coughed. “Not to interrupt whatever _that_ was going to be, but I think you guys should reconsider your tactics.”

This seemed to get the attention of the other two, who up to this point, were heckling Addie and that senior guy still. They both stomped over menacingly as if they would be judged on the way that they held themselves. Peter knew there were only two ways that this would end for them and nobody was going to care how they walked or what they said.

“You really are just stupid.” Zach breathed as Melissa and Scott reached them. The three of them looked tired, but Scott more so than the other two.

Flash all but whispered, “that’s what I said.”

Thankfully, Peter was already talking, so nobody heard the words come out of Flash’s mouth. “I’m just saying, there are a ton of people out there right now who are either going to kill you or make sure you spend a really long time in prison.”

“You think we didn’t already consider that?” Melissa bellowed, her face dangerously close to Peter’s. It was weird, really. They had never said more than one word to each other and yet she was completely comfortable putting her lips incredibly close to Peter’s cheek.

Peter couldn’t help but think of that episode of SpongeBob where they’re trying to find the balloon thief and Patrick licks a SpongeBob shaped Popsicle. He shivered at the thought.

Peter looked up at Scott and Zach, who seemed to have paled at their companion’s words. Interesting. Melissa seems to be in charge, or at least more comfortable with the idea of death than the two boys. Or maybe she just didn’t mind sitting in a jail cell for the rest of her life. Either way, her apathy towards the future worried Peter. If you weren’t afraid of the consequences of your actions, you really could do anything.

And it seemed she really wanted revenge.

“There’s only one way this ends for us.” Melissa continued as Zach and Scott remained motionless. “If it all goes well, we won’t have to see the repercussions.”

Flash chuckled dangerously, causing Peter to roll his eyes and stare at him incredulously. “_What?_”

“Are you fu-?” Peter started but was interrupted by Melissa smacking the butt of her gun into the side of his face. Instinctively, he pulled his hand to his face and turned to look back at her. Flash opened his mouth again, forcing Peter to say, “What the _fuck_ was that for?”

Zach stepped forward and pulled Peter up by his hair, causing Peter to wince. His leg was still aching, although felt considerably better than the last time he had stood on it. He considered that to be a tiny win.

“You two need to be separated?” Zach asked causing an eye roll from Scott, who was now mumbling to himself as he walked away.

Peter was led to the bleachers by Zach which left Flash in the middle of the gym. Peter couldn’t help but think that wasn’t the safest spot but his head hurt and there didn’t seem to be anything immediately wrong with it, so he allowed himself to be led. He just hoped that Flash would keep his mouth shut.

* 

With the rest of the building evacuated, the police were able to enter the school and set up for a hostage situation. Tony barely paid them any mind though, choosing to focus on Peter, who was now sitting next to his frizzy-haired friend and had blood dripping from his forehead. The kid didn’t look too bothered by his leg anymore, which gave Tony some hope that maybe his injury hadn’t been so bad.

“_Stark_.” Frank, the Chief, had recently introduced himself for probably the hundredth time since Tony had confessed to being Iron Man. Tony made a mental note to try extra hard to remember it this time. Pepper would be proud, if not ashamed to find out that he _didn’t_ have it memorized already. But in the end, she’d be proud.

“Frank.” Tony muttered, turning away from the door and taking a few steps towards the man. There was an air surrounding them that Tony couldn’t quite place. It was morbid almost, like something terrible was about to happen and nobody in the hallway quite wanted to face it yet. Ignorance was bliss. Yada yada.

“We’ve got it from here.”

Tony looked around sarcastically. “Really? Because it doesn’t seem like you have it _at all._”

A few exasperated sighs escaped the lips of Frank’s subordinates, and a more bulky fellow took a few steps towards Tony as if to lead him out of the school. Tony scoffed and looked away.

He wasn’t leaving Peter here by himself. Not willingly anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know about you guys, but that episode of spongebob I alluded to makes me cringe so badly haha


	7. The Final Hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long, but I made it extra long so I hope that counts for something!
> 
> Enjoy :) 
> 
> TW: Brief mention of suicide - paragraph starts bolded. Skip it if you need to. Stay safe.

**1:25 – 2:25pm**

There was something to say about the lack of courage that the Chief of Police showed during situations which required an all or nothing response. He didn’t outwardly make any call one way or the other, but instead chose to listen and evaluate the suggestions of those around him. It seemed as though anyone was able to have an opinion.

Everyone except Tony, who was now standing by the side of a police car unable to move due to the handcuffs that had been shackled to him just a _little_ too tight.

*

May approached the open door, her feet shuffling lightly across the floor. She was unsure what to say - what she _could_ say - that wouldn’t make her look psychotic. Inhaling sharply, she curled her fingers and tapped lightly on the doorframe.

“H-Hi.” May greeted, her voice shaking in a way it never did before. Lack of sleep, maybe, but May was sure it had more to do with her nephew’s choice of career. Whatever the case, May made a mental note to go to bed early tonight. Peter too. “I’m May Parker.”

Abigail Higgins looked up from her book slowly, her eyes red and her face blotchy. May took a deep breath before striding into the room, more confidently than she had walked across the ER. A man was sitting in the seat next to her. If he was even the least bit interested in this conversation, he didn’t show it – just sat there, his legs crossed and his eyes skimming the insides of a magazine.

“Are you my new nurse?” The woman asked, gently rested her book on her lap before pushing herself up so that her back was against the headboard.

“No, but I can go ask and let you know who it is if you’d like.” May offered, her fingers nervously playing with the hem of her shirt.

“That’s quite alright. I should be getting discharged shortly. All that for a tiny scratch.”

May smiled and nodded her head. Abigail’s mouth twitched up at the corners before a more sullen look took place. As if making light of the situation turned her into a monster, she shook her head rapidly and uttered a few apologies. May bit her lip and opened the chart that was hanging from the bottom of the bed. She’d read it already – twice, but seeing the woman in person instead of reading a story about her, made it a little more real.

“Your – uh your chart says that you talked to a boy?” May asked, glancing up quickly to see the woman’s face fall in recognition and understanding. “It doesn’t mention a name.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t.” The woman muttered, staring pointedly at May. “Who did you say you were again?”

“My nephew – he is a student at Midtown. But I – well I hope to be a nurse here.” The atmosphere of the room changed once the man put his book down and all but glared at her. May found herself scratching a nonexistent itch behind her right ear, a habit she hadn’t needed to reengage until now. “I-I’m sorry for intruding.”

“Hector, _please_. Nobody is intimidated by you.” Abigail laughed, and though May disagreed with her opinion, she allowed herself to smile. “The doctors say I conjured up the boy to deal with the trauma of the situation.”

“But the webbing-.”

“Belonged to Spider-Man, yes.” Abigail fiddled with her blanket for a few short seconds and May allowed herself to glance towards Hector who had gone back to looking at his book. His eyes weren’t moving back and forth though, and May was confident in her deduction that he was only pretending to do so. “But the boy I saw was a student. His name was -.”

May saw the precise moment that the woman seemed to recognize the situation and her mouth had gone dry. This wasn’t what she had wanted. She came over here for – well she didn’t actually know. Peter was still in the building either way and Ms. Higgins had no idea what had happened once Spider-Man had rescued her. She anticipated that when she got to the room, she’d know what it was she wanted – what she needed. What she didn’t anticipate was somehow winding up outing her nephew as the famous vigilante.

“What did you say your name was again?” Abigail asked, sitting up straighter than she had been before.

May stumbled over words – phrases that she could use to explain herself or to at the very least be used as an escape from the situation, but before she was able to, another female entered the room. May turned to see Pepper Potts standing there in all of her glory, holding a small Tupperware container.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Pepper smiled as she motioned for May to leave the room. Whether she had heard the entire conversation or even any of it was unknown, but May took the escape and gracefully excused herself, waiting just outside the room for Pepper to do the same.

Sure enough, not two minutes later, Pepper exited the room and playfully rolled her eyes. “That woman is a talker once she gets going.”

“How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough to know that you needed some help.” Pepper smiled and lead the way to a tiny bench just outside of the nurse’s station. “How are you holding up?”

Pepper and May had never really had a chance to talk privately in all of the time they’d known each other. There were instances when they’d be in the same room, but Tony and/or Peter were always there as well monopolizing the conversation with their incessant bickering and humor. Now didn’t seem like the best time to create a lasting friendship, but Pepper would be damned if she didn’t at least put some sort of effort in.

“It gets easier.” Pepper offered once May was finished ranting about her feelings. “It doesn’t exactly get _easy_, but well.. you learn to cope.”

“How do you do it? I mean, Tony flew a live bomb into space.”

Pepper winced at the memory before a soft chuckle escaped her lips. “I busy myself with work and when that doesn’t work, I busy myself with a new hobby. Which reminds me, I gave the cookies I baked for you to that woman.”

“That’s okay. Thanks anyway.” May smiled and wondered why she hadn’t thought to try harder to get to know Pepper on a more personal level. The two of them had a lot in common, or at least enough that conversations tended to be easy.

“Come to think of it, you’re probably lucky. I’m not really known for my baking.” Pepper laughed lightheartedly. “Or if I am… it’s not complimentary.”

May laughed and her gaze drifted back towards the television. They had finished evacuations about 45 minutes ago and SWAT had entered the school it seemed. Pepper followed her gaze and sighed. It wasn’t looking good for Peter. Tony had contacted her about an hour ago saying that the kid hadn’t come out of the school for the suit, which Tony took to mean that the kid was outwardly defying him once more, but Pepper knew better. Something else had to be going on.

“I know I give Tony a hard time, but I really do appreciate what the two of you do for Peter.” May confessed.

Pepper wanted to respond with an assurance that May had no need to apologize; that Tony was hard to deal with on his good days let alone his bad days. However, it appeared she didn’t have to because her point was shown clear as day on the television. “Oh my God.”

On the screen was a video clip of Tony Stark standing at the school with his hands cuffed to the side of one of the police cars. He looked more pissed off than May had ever seen him.

May narrowed her eyes and whispered, “What the fu-?”

*

Peter’s breathing didn’t seem to want to slow down any time soon and the sharp inhalations were starting to irritate his throat. The kids on the bleachers were getting antsy, Peter one of them. MJ was leaning on him slightly, fussing over the gash on his temple that would be closed and completely healed in probably less than 3 hours. She’d asked about Ned and pestered him about how unbelievably moronic he is, but once all of that was done, she had resettled into her quiet, scared state.

Sadie stood once more, this time looking less confident and 100% more uncomfortable. “Can we _please_ be allowed to use the bathroom?”

“You know, that’s not a terrible idea.” Peter piped up, standing alongside of Sadie, a girl who they both knew wouldn’t acknowledge his existence if she tripped over him.

“You really need to learn to shut up.” Melissa quipped with an eye roll. After she had hit him in the head, she seemed to resign to being a sort of assistant to both Scott and Zach.

Peter sighed before licking his lips. “Yeah I’ve heard that.”

“Sit down!” Scott yelled. Sadie was quick to obey, but Peter stood cursing himself for being raised in an environment that led him to believe he was capable of saving anyone.

“Look, you fire one shot and they’re going to come storming in guns blazing.” Scott didn’t seem to want to do anything but shout, so Peter looked towards Zach, who had been the more logical one this whole time. “That’s just a fact.”

“That’s not how hostage situations work.” Scott reasoned with a shrug of his shoulders. “They haven’t even called us yet.”

“This isn’t _Die Hard_, dude. We’re in a gym.”

“He’s got a point.” Zach muttered.

Melissa scoffed. “No he doesn’t. We have a plan.”

Peter was going to respond but was dragged down the bleachers and onto the floor by Scott. There were a few gasps as he did so, none louder than Flash’s and none more painful to hear than MJ’s. Scott kicked the back of Peter’s legs causing him to fall forward onto his knees. It hurt, but not as much as the realization that maybe Peter had failed.

Here he was, busting his ass all morning to get here so that he could rescue everyone and he couldn’t even do that. No wonder Mr. Stark didn’t trust him to help out with actual missions. Aunt May was going to be so upset when she found out and she’d probably yell at Tony, who would probably be unfazed but _still_. It wasn’t his burden to carry. Scott cocked the gun and pressed it to Peter’s temple.

“Any last words?”

Peter rolled his eyes at the cliché but licked his lips anyway. The action managed to calm him down slightly even though his mouth had gone dry. “If you shoot me, it’s going to be the only thing you get to do, I’m _telling_ you.”

“Shut up!” Melissa shrieked.

“Think about it.” Peter continued, wincing as Scott pushed the gun further into his temple. “You know how in -? Have you see _Die Hard_? Well, okay, either way, the guy was like fifty stories up in the air. If he shot people, the police had no vantage point so he could just like do whatever. But you guys-. Well, you guys chose the gym. All of it’s walls have windows to either the outside or that hallway and we all know they’re in the hallway. You shoot me right now and they’ll crash through windows and those doors and you won’t have time to shoot who you actually did all of this for.”

Flash scoffed. “Thanks.”

There was nothing Peter could do in here, but if he was one of the hostages released, he could grab his suit from Mr. Stark. His leg was pretty much healed at this point, or enough that he could walk without causing suspicion. It wasn’t bleeding any more. He could get to Mr. Stark and back to the gym in time to save Flash. He just knew it. All he needed was the chance.

“Scott put the gun down.” Zach sighed while he rubbed his temples. “If you shoot him, we’re done. They storm in guns blazing.”

Peter felt his muscles relax, but only slightly as Scott put his arm down, releasing the end of the gun from Peter’s temple. From the corner of his eye, he saw MJ release a breath. From the length of it, it seemed as though she had been holding it for quite some time.

“Then we’ll let them go.” Scott mumbled, scratching the top of his head aggressively. Peter couldn’t help but smile, if only for a millisecond. He might not have been able to save them as Spider-Man but Peter Parker wasn’t all that bad.

Flash stood up quickly before being shoved back down by Melissa. His ankle bent in an unnatural way and Peter grimaced at the sound of the boy’s scream. It was loud and shrill; not a noise he’d ever wanted to associate with Flash. The boy’s hand quickly sought after his pant leg. Peter gagged when he saw white sticking out from under Flash’s skin coated in blood. 

“You stay.” Melissa muttered as if anyone had any doubts after what they just saw. Flash lay on the ground, clutching his shin as blood seeped through his ankle. Arguably there wasn’t a lot of blood, but still, Peter felt woozy as he heard the snap and crunch repeatedly in his head. 

Peter stood up and followed the rest of the kids towards where Scott was ushering them before stopping abruptly as Zach started shouting towards the police what was happening. As Peter approached the door, Scott pulled him backward. His feet shuffled and he struggled to catch his balance despite his enhanced reflexes and undeniable grace.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Scott questioned, pushing Peter backward. Although he didn’t actually lose his balance, he thought it’d go much smoother if Scott felt stronger, so Peter forced himself to fall backward to the ground. Grunting, as his butt hit the ground just a little harder than he’d like.

“I guess nowhere-” was all Peter replied with. It was all he could think to say. At this point, Peter was losing faith in his ability to pull this off and part of him was okay with that. He wasn’t going to let that part of him win out over the childish hope, but still, he was willing to humor the negativity for a few minutes. 

When he made it out alive, Tony was surely going to murder him anyway.

**1:50:54 pm**

Happy smiled kindly as May Parker and Pepper Potts walked over to where he was standing. Their confidence was unwavering despite the fact that one hero was still inside the building finding some way to save the day without giving away that he has fought alongside Iron Man, while the other hero was standing handcuffed to a car hilariously – in Happy’s opinion – useless.

Not that this situation was funny. No, because it wasn’t. The kid who he had been driving around and dodging calls from was inside practically helpless. To say the kid was annoying would be an understatement, but still Happy’s insides were flipping at the thought of what he could possibly be being subjected to inside.

Besides, the kid was bright. Being excitable about science things and hero things made sense and was probably more of an attribute than a flaw.

“Tony, what are you _doing?_” Pepper demanded, tearing Happy away from his internal monologue. He briefly – but still incredibly awkwardly – hugged May from the side before taking a few strides backwards to give the trio some space. “There are kids inside – _Peter_ is inside and you’re doing _what_ exactly?”

“I thought I’d just hang out here instead. Take in the neighborhood; really get to know the locals.”

“Tony-.” Pepper warned, her voice dropping to a tone Happy recognized all too well from the endless amount of times he’d witness men bend to her will. Unsurprisingly, the tone was pretty much exclusively reserved for Tony.

“You think I wanted this to happen?” Tony spat, his features softening only slightly when he glanced over towards where May was standing with her hand over her mouth. He’d wanted to say a lot of things: _I’m sorry. I tried. Peter’s going to be fine._ But none of them manifested in his mouth. Instead, he said, “Can _someone_ please get me out of this?”

**2:13:13 pm**

Peter shook his negative thoughts out of his head – or rather, he tried. It was difficult, though, once he got started. They just seemed to always be stronger and faster than Peter could handle.

_You fucked up. _

_You should be better – do better. _

_Tony is angry because you didn’t listen. _

_You never listen. _

_Flash is in trouble because you couldn’t save him. _

_Ben is dead because-. _

“Parker.” Flash whispered drawing Peter’s attention away from himself. Peter seemed to be distracted and while Flash wasn’t very confident in the younger boy’s ability to _save_ them, he still figured that maybe they could help each other - a sort of truce for their final moments.

Peter crawled over to where he was sitting and reached out to touch the skin around Flash’s ankle. It was warm and sticky with blood, but ultimately there wasn’t anything Peter could do for it right now. If he tried to manipulate the bone, he could cause further damage or increase the likelihood of an infection. So instead, Peter focused on creating a sort of tourniquet to at least control the bleeding slightly.

The three gunmen were continuing to focus on releasing their makeshift prisoners which gave Peter the freedom to take his sweatshirt off once more and tie it tightly around Flash’s thigh. He’d never made a tourniquet before, nor had he seen it done in person, but he was still pretty proud of his attempt.

Peter looked up into Flash’s weary eyes. They were red, but other than that there was no signs that Flash had been crying. If Peter didn’t know any better, he wouldn’t have assumed he had been. But Peter did know better – had seen it happen and his heart dropped knowing how upsetting that alone must be for him.

“We’re going to get out of here.” Peter whispered, ignoring the “_you don’t know that”_ echoing between his skull.

_Liar. _

As if sensing the newfound optimism amongst the boys, Melissa came back over and pushed Peter slightly backwards so that he was no longer hovering over Flash’s leg. She chuckled as she saw the makeshift first-aid Peter had performed, reaching out with her gun and pushing on the area just above the ankle. Flash screamed out in pain.

It was deafening.

“Stop!” Peter yelled, jumping up and pushing the girl backward. Immediately she drew her weapon, but it wasn’t pointing at Peter as he would have expected. It was pointed at Flash.

Frantically, Peter searched Melissa’s eyes for any sort of emotion to latch onto – to appeal to and make her stop, but there was none. Her eyes were cold and calculated as if she had dreamt of this for months. Maybe she had.

“I’ve seen you around sometimes.” Melissa mentioned calmly. Her finger twitched against the skin of the trigger teasingly and Peter watched as she smirked sadistically. He watched and recognized the exact moment she heard Peter’s breath hitch and he knew right then she knew what she was doing. “You’re always with that heavy kid.”

“Ned.” Peter replied, watching carefully as she shrugged, the gun leaving Flash for all of two seconds. “His name is Ned.”

“Ned.” She repeated and Peter assumed it was for nothing else but dramatic effect. “I know you get tormented by him. Picked on. Shoved around. Bullied.”

Peter allowed his eyes to flick towards Flash, who was biting his lip. It could have been out of pain or because of nerves, but Peter had never seen Flash look so broken – so human. And that was saying something because Peter was fairly familiar with Flash’s home life. May had reminded him time and time again any time that Peter expressed it was getting harder to contain his anger.

Melissa took Peter’s refusal to answer in stride. “So what I don’t understand is why you’re standing there defending him.”

“I’m not- I wouldn’t say-.” Peter sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This whole talking thing was getting too dramatic and cliché for him. It was all too television. He took a deep breath before clarifying. “Yes, okay? He is an asshole but that doesn’t mean that he-.”

“It doesn’t mean what? That he doesn’t deserve the same treatment back?”

“Last I checked, we’re taught that two wrongs don’t make a right.” Peter knew he sounded childish, but this whole thing was childish. The only difference between this and a fight he had encountered in second grade was the addition of a semi-automatic weapon. He added, “And Flash never brought a gun to school.”

**2:20:43 pm**

“Pep, sweetie, there is _nothing_ I can do.” Tony repeated, pinching the bridge of his nose. Happy was off somewhere with May.

Pepper rested her hands on her hips while she leaned onto her right foot, her left one resting a little bit in front for stability. “Tony, they released _everyone _else.”

This was true. It had been about 5 minutes since the rest of the kids had been released, minus Peter and that boy who bullied him. The boy whose fault this was. The boy who was just a boy and yet who had the world’s strongest and most powerful couple hating him.

“He…. He probably knows what he’s doing.” Tony lied. What made the lie worse is that Tony knew that Pepper knew it was a lie.

“He’s _fifteen._”

“Sixteen actually. He’s uh… quite touchy about that so I wouldn’t get that wrong again if I were you.”

“_Tony-.” _

**2:21:56 pm**

“You guys- what you’re doing is wrong.” Peter tried to reason, his hands still up while her gun was still pointed at Flash. “This – it isn’t the way to fix this.”

Flash took the moment of distraction supplied by the conversation to scoot slightly towards Peter. Melissa cocked her gun and repositioned it. Flash stopped moving.

“I’m tired of feeling like this.” Melissa breathed.

Peter nodded, “I know.”

**2:22:05 pm**

May leaned her head on Happy’s shoulder. They had retreated to one of Tony’s cars and were sitting in the back seat. The air was relaxing and the solitude was necessary for May to think straight. Too much was happening outside and with Peter still not out of the building it was all just a little too much.

“Happy, what if he doesn’t-? I mean… what if this is it?”

Happy breathed and looked towards her, a smell of mustard overwhelmed her senses and she was forced to look away. “He’s going to be fine.”

“But what if he isn’t?”

**2:22:16 pm**

“Ned!” MJ screamed, racing towards the boy and engulfing him in a massive hug. Ned squeezed back but paid more attention to the other students who were now being escorted towards medical tents.

MJ seemed to sense Ned’s focus and released him, suddenly embarrassed by her actions. Ned seemed to notice this and looked at her. “Is – Is Peter still inside?”

MJ nodded sadly, twiddling her hands in front of her.

**2:22:47 pm**

There was something to say about the way that Scott and Zach seemed to stand on the sidelines as they watched Melissa do all of the talking. It was a weird dynamic and not because Melissa was female. Peter didn’t think like that. May had raised him better. No, what was weird was the fact that even though Scott and Zach had both raised their voices earlier and shown interest, it was like they would rather be doing literally anything else at this moment.

“I’m not trying to be a buzz kill or anything,” Flash began and Peter allowed himself to shift his gaze from Melissa back towards Flash, who was staring up at Peter like a little injured puppy. “but can you hurry this up maybe? Press a button and alert Tony Stark or something?”

“Ton-? How do you know Tony Stark?” Zach asked, stepping forward from the back burner until he was standing behind Melissa.

Peter shrugged half-heartedly. “Internship.”

“Woah… you have an internship with StarkTech?”

“Shut _up_ Zach.”

Peter tried his best to smile. It was a hard task to complete when someone with the power to kill someone right there could misinterpret any word you say. “Yeah, it’s really cool. He’s actually looking for other kids. I could maybe put in a good word, although it might take him a little while to overlook _this._”

**2:23:04 pm**

Tony found himself walking back up the steps towards the main entrance of the building. Although there were police standing all around him, they didn’t seem to care about his actions – or they didn’t know that they were supposed to. Whatever the reason, he was feeling pretty confident.

Nobody keeps Tony Stark locked away.

That being said, he was careful to avoid the hallway that he knew the Chief of Police occupied, his name once again slipping his mind. He really needed to work on that. Instead, he chose an adjacent route and ended up outside again, but still able to entre the gym if necessary. Although, he was not sure how exactly he would be of any assistance, seeing as how he was just a man at this point.

No suit. No Rhodey.

Just Tony.

It was enough for Pepper though, so he’d make it enough for this because there were no other options.

**2:23:34 pm**

“Oh Ned.” May cooed, pulling the boy into her side and placing a protective hand over the side of his face. He’d been crying and May felt her protective nature step into overdrive. Behind Ned stood a girl who couldn’t seem to bring herself to meet May’s eyes. May ignored this and pulled her in for a hug as well. “You must be MJ.”

“Y-you know who I am?” MJ asked softly, finding it odd that she wrapped her own arms around Peter’s aunt and hugged her back.

May chuckled, wiping a stray tear from her own face, before brushing a stray hair behind MJ’s ear. The action was strangely familiar and although MJ didn’t know the woman, she wanted more from her - like the mother her own mother just didn’t seem ready to be. “Oh sure. Peter doesn’t shut up about you.”

“P-Peter talks about me?”

Ned changed the subject quickly. “Right… so today has been crazy, huh?”

**2:23:56 pm**

“This is such _bullshit._” Melissa screamed, her voice echoing throughout Peter’s brain due to the pure volume of it. She was still aiming the gun at Flash but was now looking at Zach, who seemed to have a change of heart. Scott, fidgeted in the corner, his eyes flashing dangerously between Peter, Melissa and Zach as if trying to figure out which angle was better for him to take.

Zach put his gun on the floor. “I’m done.”

Flash sighed a little too loudly causing Melissa to growl. “You think this means you’re going to live?”

Zach started walking towards the exit.

Scott raised his gun.

Peter wasn’t sure how long it had taken him to realize what was about to happen, but as soon as he did, he started racing towards Scott, ignoring the look of anger on Melissa’s face as she refocused her gun on Peter.

Two shots fired as Peter screamed and tackled Scott to the ground. 

**2:24:08 pm **

Tony heard the first shot before he saw Peter fall to the ground. The second shot came after. The kid who had been walking towards the door Tony was standing by fell as well.

**A** mess of blue suits invaded the room, guns drawn. The girl in the middle of the floor put the gun she had used to the side of her head. Tony frowned.

**Th**at was not the ending she deserved.

**Th**e men in blue seemed to agree and tried to get to her in time, but a third gunshot rang out. As her body fell to the ground, Tony looked back towards Peter.

Blue suits moved quickly to surround the boy who Peter had tackled, bringing him to his knees effortlessly and extracting the gun from his reach.

Peter lay motionless on the ground.

Tony thought the boy had gotten there in time, but it seemed like Tony had been wrong.

He burst through the door and started to run.

**2:24:29 pm**

Peter blinked. There was a burning sensation coming from his stomach and he found it hard to focus on anything other than his breathing. It was raggedy and painful – coming out in panicked spurts. It hurt.

Why did it hurt so bad?

Somebody was lifting his head and Peter instantly felt a little calmer. Someone was here. _Who was here?_

He looked up into the eyes of Tony Stark.

“I-I’m s-so-.” It was hard to speak, the pain overtaking all of his sense and flooding his mind. He found himself unable to focus on it but unable to tear his thoughts away from it all at the same time.

Tony shushed him. “Just breathe, kid.”

Peter found the whole breathing thing that he had been doing with ease since birth was suddenly the hardest thing he could possibly be doing. 

“Pete-Pete? You gotta stay with me, okay?”

It was then Peter noticed that he had closed his eyes. He opened them rapidly at the realization. “I don’t- I don’t want to die, Mr. Stark.”

“You’re not going to, Pete.” Stark answered confidently and Peter found himself closing his eyes again. It hurt when his eyes were open. Hurt when he was paying attention. If he could just stop paying attention, maybe-. “Do you hear me? You’re not going anywhere.”

_Peter was swimming in a pool that Uncle Ben had brought him to one day after work. Ben’s workdays had been getting longer, leaving little room to hang out with his nephew and he promised that with some secrecy from May, he’d spend a day with Peter with no interruptions. This allowed an excuse to play hooky that Peter wouldn’t get in trouble for. _

_It also gave him the perfect opportunity to hang out with his uncle, whom he’d missed for quite some time. _

_The problem was that Peter didn’t know how to swim but with his childish confidence had found himself flailing around in the deep end of a pool. Children – probably teenagers – that were swimming around him started to panic and Peter felt shamed._

_The frantic movement of his arms didn’t seem to be helping him any. It only seemed to be causing the bitter water to enter his mouth. Peter started to choke. _

_Panic and choke. _

_Choke and panic. _

_After what felt like a lifetime but could only have been around 30 seconds, Peter felt two secure arms around him pulling him towards the wall. Peter gripped it and continued to talk, happy that he was able to hold himself out of the water but still scared. _

_“Breathe, Pete.” Uncle Ben had said soothingly. “You just have to breathe.”_

“C’mon Pete. Stay with me.” Tony tried but Peter’s eyes had rolled back and now he was lying limp. His head had rolled into the crook of Tony’s arm. Tony bit back a sob.

**2:24:57 pm**

_Breathe, _the voice repeated, _Breathe_

**2:24:58 pm**

_Just one breath…_

**2:24:59 pm**

Darkness.

**2:25:00 pm**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I had this as two separate chapters but then it took me forever to update and I felt as though giving you a recovery chapter after all of the cliff hangers was only fair.


	8. Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest one yet and the chapter I struggled with the most. I'm not incredibly pleased with it but know that if I keep trying to fix it, I'll never publish it. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

_Peter was lying in a grass field a few yards from a baseball field on his stomach, his hands propped up and supporting his head. There was a small breeze today, which felt great after a long month of insanely high temperatures. He bent his knees and allowed his legs to flutter up and down as he watched his uncle steal third base. The crowd behind the dugout, consisting of wives and other family members, cheered before going back to their previous conversations. _

_His parents were over there talking to May. _

_Ben focused and pointed to where Peter was lying, smiling as he did so. Peter smiled back and stuck out his tongue. _

_It was nice here. There was no pain. Just sunshine and happiness. _

*

May saw miracles all of the time from babies surviving tremendous falls to stroke victims walking away unscathed. That being said, she had seen quite a few tragedies in her day and had lived through the worst. The first being the loss of her parents. She was old enough at the time to remember the taste of her mother’s pancakes and the sound the door made when her dad entered it a bit too aggressively. However, the pain that came with the death of her parents wasn’t too much for her to handle at the time. They were both incredibly sick and they had months together between their separate diagnoses and their deaths – just 2 years apart.

Then there had been the death of her beloved friends: Richard and Mary Parker. She’d met Mary first when the two had found they shared a common hatred of their Intro to Chemistry professor freshman year of college. He had been rude and demeaning, claiming on several different occasions that women had no place in STEM. They both sought to prove him wrong. Then she’d met Richard – the frat star who had a heart of gold.

Richard, who’d been a chemical engineering major, and who had known Mary since they were much younger, took it upon himself to help the ladies study. This lead to many weeknights in the library fighting against sleep. May had had a crush on Richard pretty much instantly but pushed it to the back of her mind. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t hard either. Her friendship with Mary had meant more to her than anything else. She’d be single for years if it meant that Mary could find happiness.

Then she met Ben – Richard’s annoying little brother who was just a senior in high school. He’d come up for the weekend, having nothing else to do and missing his older brother terribly. He struck up a conversation with May over a jungle juice bowl at the frat house and May’s heart took over.

They’d dated for 4 years through many hardships. Long Distance (Ben decided to go to school in another state). Poor time management skills (May struggled through clinicals). Insecurities that came with friendships of the opposite sex (Both were guilty). And then possibly the worse complication of all: the death of Richard and Mary.

Ben had gotten the call first being a direct relative of Richard. He’d kept it a secret from May for almost an entire day as she studied for the NCLEX on a spur-of-the-moment vacation with her friends. However, almost 18 hours later, he couldn’t take it anymore and May was awoken by a call at 2:00 in the morning. She’d been mad at first thinking that he had gone to a bar and was drunk dialing her, but when she’d answered the phone, all she could hear was broken sobs.

They’d stayed on the phone for the entire 5 hours it had taken May to reach their apartment in New York. The two held each other and didn’t leave their apartment once the next day.

It was the worst pain May had ever been in and she had vowed never to let herself feel that way again. She stayed in New York and pushed the NCLEX aside for a few weeks in an attempt to help build Ben’s spirits and help with the funeral arrangements. Two nights after the accident, Ben’s parents called with a very out of this world request: take in Peter Parker.

Peter was 6 years old and the two adored him, but still, they had only been married a year and didn’t know the first thing about raising a child. Still, knowing that Mary and Richard wanted nothing less, the accepted Peter into their home, quickly changing the guest room to a child’s bedroom. Peter was gracious, polite and always courteous. He was honestly the best thing that could have happened to Ben, who now had his favorite nephew around to distract him.

After about 6 years, May started studying for her NCLEX exam again, leading to some late nights at any coffee shop that allowed her to sit for hours without purchasing more than one coffee. Ben was happy. Peter was thriving in school. Things were looking up. And then they weren’t.

Peter had been the one to call her. It was late, 10:45pm and she had remembered rolling her eyes at the call. He’d been sneaking out a lot lately and had on more than one occasion gotten in trouble with the neighbors. He’d been on this kick ever since he had turned 13 and Ben was sure he’d grow out of it. This was certainly him calling to express to her that he was sorry. He was always sorry. Sorry for acting out. Sorry for taking up space. His therapist said that the best way to handle these situations was to let him be sorry but remind him that he was allowed to exist and make mistakes.

Only when she answered the phone, there were sirens blasting in her ear, so loud that she had to pull her head away to stop her ears from hurting. She was on her feet in an instant.

“M-May.” He choked out as she threw her study book into her purse and booked it out of the shop. She didn’t care the looks she got as she took off running down the street. Where she was running, she didn’t know. But she would not get there walking. “Th-there’s been an – Oh _God_, it’s so bad…So so bad.”

“Pete, where are you?” She took her heels off and held them in her hand, walking towards the curb and throwing her hand in the air. Running had never really been her thing and a cab would most likely get her to where she had to go faster.

“Tang Liquor… on 89th.” He choked out.

“What are you-?” May started before shaking her head and telling the taxi where to bring her. Yelling at Peter for being at a liquor store could wait. She still didn’t know what she was driving into. Was Peter being arrested for having a fake ID? Do people get arrested for that? Was he hurt? Why were there sirens? Why was he crying?

To this day, she wished she’d never found out.

The funeral had been small. They’d all been sad, overwhelmed by the grief of losing yet another family member. Peter and May had always gotten along and their relationship was only strengthened through their common heartbreaks. They were both motherless, fatherless and now Ben-less. May was sure that had Peter not been around, she’d never have stood back up and faced the world the way she had.

He made her stronger and more confident.

And now he was lying on a hospital bed in Stark Tower with nurses and doctors fluttering around as they waited for some sign that his brain had recuperated from the lack of oxygen and blood. Peter healed well – only about 1 day and a half passed by the time his skin closed leaving only a small scar.

But Peter’s brain was a different story. On the way from the school to the ambulance, Peter started hemorrhaging. His brain was thirsty for the blood that was no longer running through his system. Without the blood, oxygen was scarce. Not to mention the full minutes and thirty seconds that had passed with Peter not breathing at all.

His brain had been compromised.

“Pete, I can’t lose you too.” May whispered, clasping onto his right hand while she stroked his hair with her other. “You have to wake up, okay?”

She placed her head on his forehead for a few brief seconds before leaning down and kissing his cheek.

“You just- I know it’s hard… but you have to, yeah? You have to wake up for me.”

*

_There was something special about coming to see his uncle play baseball every other Saturday. Something that Peter’s limited vocabulary couldn’t explain. His parents used to live closer to his aunt and uncle but had moved far away to be closer to his grandparents. _

_It was too far away for him. They’d even had to cross a bridge to get here. A bridge! When they were driving over it, Peter had focused really hard and he was pretty sure he’d seen a troll. It was going to be the first thing he told his friend Harry at school on Monday. _

_He’d be impressed and the whole school would know by lunchtime. Peter beamed at the thought. _

_Then his uncle had shot him a smile as the umpire called for the end of the game. Peter wasn’t sure what had happened having been distracted by several ants that were currently moving along the dirt patch directly in front of him. There had been a spider there earlier that had almost sent him running for the hills, but it had crawled far away from Peter which was perfectly okay._

_His uncle frowned suddenly as Peter heard a voice telling him to wake up. He looked around frantically. How weird. Nobody was around him and he wasn’t even sleeping. He wasn’t even tired. _

_Shaking his head, he decided to stand up and walk towards Ben – away from the scary voice and the sudden pain that it seemed to cause his stomach. _

_It was such a nice day. _

* 

“Hey kid.” Happy started, walking into the room awkwardly. He’d never been good at this part of the job – the part where you were unsure what was going to happen but had to pretend you knew it was going to end happily. Happy preferred instances where there was no need to pretend – where it was just obvious that everyone was going to be okay and things were going to work out.

Peter was lying so still, so _unbelievably_ still that in and of itself the most unnerving thing about being in this room. Even when the kid had fallen asleep on the Stark’s couch or in the back of the car, he was always so twitchy. But he was lying here practically dead. Motionless. Pale.

But breathing.

“Listen Pete, I’ve been there. I know what it’s like. I know you’re scared, but you have to wake up.”

Happy had never really had to deal with death, which was something he took pride in seeing as he started as a security guard. His parents were alive back on their farm upstate. His sister had just given birth to his 2nd niece a few weeks ago and was living happily in Washington State. He had no real experience and was thus, for about the fiftieth time in his life, thrown into an unfamiliar situation that was just altogether too uncomfortable to handle.

There were a lot of things Happy wanted to tell the kid and there had been for a while. Ever since he began seeing May somewhat regularly, he had wanted to show Peter that despite the sarcastic relationship they had, he could be somewhat of a father figure. Maybe an uncle figure if Tony managed to get his head out of his ass and step up to the position himself.

_You need to come back. Your aunt needs you. Tony needs you. _

_We all need you. _

_You’re so much more than Spiderman. So so so so much more. _

“You’re very brave, kid. Don’t let that go to waste.” Was what he said instead before his nerves go the best of him and he walked out.

* 

_“Look at you!” Ben shouted proudly as Peter ran over to where he was standing. The team was sitting around drinking from silver cans that his mom had said he wasn’t allowed to drink yet. Ben handed him a juice box and picked him up easily. _

_Peter beamed as several men reached up to give him a high five. His dad joined them a few seconds later and patted Peter on the back kindly. “You guys played great.” _

_“They lost 15-0.” May laughed, as she reached into the cooler and picked up a can for herself. Peter wondered why his mom was so against him drinking this soda, but pushed the thought to the side. He liked juice better anyway. _

_One of the men, who had been to Peter’s house before when a bunch of grownups had come to eat dinner, laughed loudly and threw his arm around his aunt. Peter frowned. Hugging was what people who loved each other did, like Peter and his mom and Uncle Ben and Aunt May. It was not meant for Aunt May and another man. _

_“Gotta put a leash on this one.” The man begged, releasing May and placing his hands together like how his mom had taught him to pray. “Or at the very least a muzzle.” _

_Peter perked up and looked around excitedly. Was there a puppy here? “You have a puppy?” _

_His dad laughed and Ben fidgeted so that he could grab Peter and put him on the ground. “No, Pete. This is what you call ‘misogyny’ at its finest.” _

_Aunt May smiled as Peter tried to repeat his father in a way only a 6 year old would. “Miss Ogg-ah-nee.” _

_“He was being mean to your Aunt May.” Uncle Ben said. _

_Peter frowned and puffed out his chest, causing a few of the adults to giggle, his mom included. She had been sitting on the grass a few feet away. A few second later, Peter lunged at the man and smacked him in the knees. Richard pulled him up into the air with a small chuckle. _

_“We don’t hurt people, okay?” His dad said, his tone serious despite the small smile on his face. _

_“He was mean to May.” _

_The man stepped forward and ruffled Peter’s hair before saying “You’re very brave, kid. Don’t let that go to waste.” _

_Peter decided that he didn’t like this man and vowed never to talk to him again. A voice rang through his ears, begging him to wake up. Frowning, Peter looked up towards the sky. There were faces up there and sounds of beeping and feelings of pain. It was so bright up there. It hurt his eyes. Wincing, he looked back down and saw an ice cream cone being held out to him. _

_He liked it down here a lot better than up there. _

_It had ice cream. _

* 

Tony hadn’t been brave enough to walk into the med bay for 4 days. Seeing Happy like this a few years ago had been hard enough, but Peter? Hell, he wasn’t prepared for that. He would never be prepared for that.

Instead, he spent his time in the lab. Pepper had traveled to California for a conference – after much pressure from May to do so, which gave Tony the freedom to do as he pleased. This mostly meant that he only realized he was tired when he was on the brink of collapse and only remembered food existed when his stomach gurgled painfully.

“Tony.” A man called from behind him and he turned to see Rhodes striding across his lab. To say that Rhodes’ presence was surprising would be an understatement. He almost never entered the space, instead choosing to summon Tony up to another part of the house. Tony didn’t look up from the nanotechnology in front of him.

Instead, Tony sighed and with the same level of disappointment in his voice he muttered, “Rhodey.”

“Kid’s aunt is going to work. I passed her on the stairs.” Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned back in his chair waiting for his best friend to finish. “Said she hadn’t seen you since the day of the shooting.”

Tony sighed and put what he had been working on down. For the first time in about 36 hours, he took a step back from his worktable and turned around. His eyes were red and puffy, which almost took away from the bags resting beneath the. When James looked down, he noticed the man’s hands had been shaking and wondered whether that was due to anxiety or overcompensating on the caffeine.

“Tony, you need to so see the kid.” Rhodes muttered, taking a step forward to throw an arm around his friend. As he did so, he scrunched his nose and waved his free hand in front of his face. “But first you really need to shower.”

*

Once Tony left the lab, he found that he was almost looking forward to going to see Peter. Yes, he hadn’t actually woken up yet despite the fact that Dr. Cho had said he should have woken up hours after he fell unconscious, but he really couldn’t focus on anything in the lab knowing that Peter was up here. Maybe if he laid eyes on him, he’d be able to focus. Or at least be able to sleep.

As he turned the last corner and Peter’s door came into view is when he started to have doubts. Maybe this wouldn’t make it better. Maybe this would make it worse.

“Tony.”

“I’m _going_.” The man muttered, although his feet slowed down considerably. When he reached the door, he stopped instantly. It had been left open and Peter lay motionless, as if taking a light nap. The bruises on his face had nearly disappeared but had left a tiny yellow tint above his eye.

Dr. Cho had said that neither gunshot wound had produced any serious infection, although the one on his leg had been quite close. Some serious doses of antibiotics were necessary as Peter’s metabolism was 4x as fast as a normal teenager’s. This is why they had kept him asleep for a few hours after Cho had bandaged him up. But it had been days now and Peter was still asleep.

He hadn’t left his lab but he was aware through meetings with Cho that brain damage was now a major concern.

Tony didn’t believe that, though. Peter was stubborn. And more than that, Peter was Tony.

“If you think for even a second that this incident is going to make me think of you as anything but a child, you’ve got another thing coming.” Tony decided to say first, ignoring the look of pure exasperation coming from his best friend.

“C’mon man… he’s injured.” Rhodes exclaimed. 

Tony looked up and over at his friend. “Do you mind?”

With no further prompting, Rhodes turned around and walked out of the room, shutting the door on his way.

“Army guys… am I right?” Tony muttered before pulling a chair up to Peter’s bedside and taking his mentee’s hand.

_“I want to go with mommy and daddy.” Peter mumbled as he crossed his arms. His grandparents had shown up to the field with happy smiles and a surplus of hugs. Peter squirmed but was unable to escape. They were too strong. _

_His dad chuckled and ruffled his hair. “We told you. We’ll be back before you know it.” _

_“Why can’t I go?” _

_Mary smiled and leaned over to kiss her son on the forehead. “You’ll have more fun here. We promise.” _

_“Traffic is going to get even worse if we stay here any longer.” Ben interrupted, pulling his brother backward and towards the parking lot. His aunt May had already left. Richard pushed him away lightly and took a step forward so that he could also kiss his son goodbye. _

_Peter was whisked away by his grandfather and listened happily to promises of late-night movies and more candy than his stomach could handle. He watched as his favorite people piled into a separate car. His grandmother cooed over him as she strapped him into a car seat. _

_He was a big boy. Car seats were dumb. _

_“How about we go to the park tomorrow?” She asked and he found himself smiling excitedly, turning away from the sight of his parents in order to share his feelings with his grandmother. She continued to hype up his excitement until she had finished buckling him. When he turned back towards the other car, he noticed that it had driven away._

_That had been the last time he would ever see his parents. _

“Alright Pete,” Tony began. There was something about this that was so familiar and comfortable, like Tony had thought about comforting the kid on a regular basis. Which of course wasn’t true. But still rubbing his thumb along the back of Peter’s hand while using his other arm to rub the kids hair only felt natural. Even more so, it seemed to be working as a grounding technique for himself. The machines beeped rhythmically and Tony felt himself slipping into a state where he was trying to keep himself awake.

“You’re taking a lot of attention away from me and my problems and quite frankly I don’t appreciate it.” Tony began, wasting little time getting to the point of his thoughts as he did not want to spend the entire afternoon in here. He’d much rather avoid his emotions and bottle them up until he exploded. It was simpler that way. “Pepper literally will not stop asking about you. It’s a little unnerving.”

Peter gave no response, which wasn’t surprising really, but had still caused Tony to be a little less confident. Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned back in his chair, releasing Peter’s hand in the process. He hadn’t taken any biology classes in college aside from intros and gen-eds, but he was pretty confident in his assumption (and Cho’s) that given the events and how they had unfolded and the timeline of treatment, Peter should be awake right now.

He should be awake, sitting up and ranting and raving about some dumb new movie (or one he wrongfully deems as old) while shoving ice-cream or whatever snack he wanted into his mouth. Happy should be in here acting miserable because Peter won’t shut up or calm down and his friends should be in the room laughing along and taking bets to see how long it would take one of them to get yelled at and/or kicked out. 

He should not still be lying unconscious.

It didn’t make sense.

_Peter frowned as he watched Uncle Ben walk through the front door to his grandparents’ house without his parents. Still, he was pretty excited to see him. Ben always played with him whereas his grandparents just didn’t. _

_“Hey champ!” Ben announced, coming over to pick Peter up in a massive hug. Peter smiled and leaned into it, yawning as he did so. _

_“Where’s mommy?” Peter asked, finding it difficult to keep his eyes open. He assumed his grandfather did too because he was asleep on the couch. _

_Ben smiled and started walking towards a bedroom off to the right, just next to the kitchen. Peter’s temporary room. “I told you, kiddo. They’ll be back in a few days.” _

_Peter huffed. “I want mommy.” _

_“We’ll have a ton more fun here, I promise. Just pretend mommy and daddy are here, yeah?” Ben replied as he reached forward to pull the blanket over Peter’s body. Peter could almost feel the sensation of his mom holding his hand. Almost. _

_Peter yawned and shut his eyes, feeling the unmistakable feeling of someone playing with his hair. He smiled into the touch. _

_Sleeping wasn’t as good as being awake and playing with his toys, but it was pretty great all the same. _

Tony licked his lips and leaned forward, taking Peter’s hand once more. Again, the urge to rub circles into Peter’s skin with the pad of his thumb was overpowering and he gave into it quite easily.

He needed a new tactic.

“Pete, buddy, you gotta wake up, okay?” He pleaded, wincing as he heard his own voice start to crack. Taking a deep breath he began to once again play with Peter’s hair. “If for no other reason, you really need a shower. Your hair is disgustingly greasy.”

_For the entire time Peter stayed with his grandparents, he dreamed of robots and aliens and witches and princesses. He’d been the hero, saving the day from destruction. To say he was pumped when he woke up the next morning would be a dramatic understatement. Ben wasn’t here though and when he’d gone out of his room to find something to eat, nobody was there._

_A feeling of unease settled over him, as it would any 6 year old who couldn’t find an adult. Tears filled his eyes. _

_He didn’t like it here anymore. _

“I know you’re scared.” Tony continued, trying his best to keep his voice even. “I do. I know. But you’re pretty much all healed up, so there’s nothing to be afraid of, Pete.”

Peter’s finger twitched.

“That’s it, buddy. You can do it.”

_Peter searched in every room before he noticed the silhouette of a female standing out on the porch. He was pretty sure it was his grandma, which was lucky because he was starving and his grandpa didn’t cook too well. With a small smile, he reached for the doorknob. It was just a little too far away, so he grabbed a book to stand on. And then he grabbed another until he was able to touch the cold metal and push the door open. _

_“Oh Peter…” His grandma cooed as she turned to watch him walk out onto the porch. Something wasn’t right. Why was she crying? _

_Concerned, Peter walked up to where she was standing and placed a gentle hand on her knee. “Did you have a bad dream? I get them too. Mommy says it’s because my brain wants me to know how strong I am.” _

_His grandmother started to shake and gasp for air as sobs overtook her. Peter took a hesitant step back before he lunged forward to wrap his tiny arms around as much of her as he possibly could. It must have been a really bad dream. _

_His grandfather’s car pulled into the driveway and he all but raced to meet them on the front steps. He wrapped his arms around his wife and held the back of her head. He started crying too. Or maybe he had already been crying. Peter frowned and took a small step backwards, causing both adults to send weary looks in his direction. _

_This wasn’t right. None of this was right. _

_He suddenly had an intense feeling that maybe he shouldn’t be here. So he turned around, and ran as fast and as far as his little legs would carry him. _

Peter’s eyelids felt heavy and for a minute, he considered leaving them closed and resigning himself into the dark unconscious he felt as if he had been in for days. He moaned as his head swam, telling him contradicting commands.

_Open your eyes. _

_Go back to sleep. _

_Move your fingers. _

_That hurts. It’s heavy. Unnatural. _

He could hear both sounds of his past life mixed with his present life. The sound of his grandma’s sobs was almost overshadowed by an annoying beeping sound.

_“Oh Peter, I’m so sorry.” _BEEP.

_“Mommy and daddy are in heaven now.” _BEEP.

Peter couldn’t decide which was worse to listen to, and he felt himself moan again under the pressure. This wasn’t a decision he wanted to make. There was pain in both of these realities, but at least one had Ben.

Having made up his mind, he stopped struggling and allowed himself to still.

“May keeps trying to bake cakes and for the health and safety of everyone in this building, I’m going to need you to open your eyes.”

He was almost asleep again when he heard the voice – when he heard the name. _May_. May wasn’t in the first world as much. She had only appeared in his life as a dominant character after he’d lost his parents.

Peter groaned as Tony said, “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

His eyelids weren’t as heavy anymore, but still, he kept them closed. Through them, he could see the shadow of lights shining intently in his direction. Too bright. Still, the voice calling to him comforted him not unlike Ben’s. It was deep and strong, but compassionate all the same.

“That’s it, buddy.” Tony all but whispered as he saw Peter’s eyes being to flutter. The hand that had once been limp in his palm was squeezing a little too hard now, but Tony allowed it.

Peter blinked a few times, wincing in between before his eyes settled on Tony’s. Dark brown met hazel and instantly Tony felt himself genuinely smile for the first time in days.

“Hey kiddo.” Tony breathed, his hand still clutching onto Peter’s while his other soothed the boy’s curls.

Peter licked his lips, not enjoying how dry his mouth felt, and continued to watch Tony breathe, the motion bringing him a certain calmness. After a few short minutes, Peter’s face scrunched. “What smells so bad?”

“I’m going to guess either May’s cupcakes or, well, you.”

Peter laughed and the air felt lighter.

* 

Peter walked through doors of his school timidly. It’d been a full two weeks since the shooting had happened and the school board had decided that 2 weeks was enough time to allow the kids to get their mental health in order.

“Parker.” Rang out almost as soon as Peter had touched his locker. He winced and turned around, seeing Flash walking towards him. “It’s been brought to my attention that apparently I’ve been a bit of a prick to a ton of people.”

Peter offered a small smile before muttering, “A bit?”

Flash chuckled before his face contorted into an unrecognizable expression – almost guilt or maybe sadness. Peter couldn’t tell. There never seemed to be a moment where Flash felt anything other than pride. “Listen, what you did 2 weeks ago was really brave and we’re all really lucky that you were there that day.”

Not one to take a compliment, Peter looked at his shoes and nodded his head. Truthfully, he was aware that had this happened on a day he’d stayed home, there might be more kids dead. But even so, people had died that day. Melissa. Principal Morita. The 3 SWAT men. Peter had literally been right there for their deaths and didn’t do anything to save them. So maybe they weren’t really all that lucky that Peter was there after all.

“Thanks,” was all he could get his mouth to say.

Flash nodded his head and took a breath. “And don’t worry. I still think you’re a penis and will refer to you accordingly.”

“I’ll try not to let it get to me.” Peter responded, turning around to grab his notebook. Sure enough, after only a second, he felt himself being pushed forward into his locker, banging his head as always.

He wasn’t mad, though. Not this time. 

*

At lunch, Peter sat in his usual seat alone. Ned had been kept home with a low-grade fever. His parents seemed to be clinging on to whatever would keep him home and safe. Peter couldn’t really say he blamed them. The world was a scary place, even if you went to school with a superhero.

“Hey.” MJ greeted, sliding into the seat directly across from Peter. Normally she liked to sit close to Peter and Ned and participate in their conversations as it pleased her but far enough away that she had peace from them.

Peter looked up from his sandwich. “Hey.”

“Your face healed up well.”

“StarkTech.”

“Speaking of Stark,” MJ began, carefully dumping a load of dressing onto the salad she had purchased. There was a pudding next to it and a carton of milk off to the side. “How is the drama queen?”

Peter coughed. “Excuse me?”

“There are videos all over YouTube of him basically crying over your body. Very interesting relationship you got there with your boss.”

“He uh… Well yeah. He takes an interest in his interns.” Peter explained, cursing himself for how lame and kind of inappropriate that sounded.

MJ nodded and seemed to be content with that. “He was carrying around some red and blue clothing too. Said it was a suit of some sort.”

Peter nodded and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Rich people… you know how they are.”

“No.” MJ shook her head. “No, I don’t actually.”

“Me neither.” Peter replied sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. MJ watched as he did so admiring the way it fell right back into place. She stared at him until he felt uncomfortable and looked away.

He was hiding something and she was pretty confident that she knew exactly what he was hiding. Things stay hidden for a reason, though, and she was sure that if he ever felt comfortable enough with her, he’d tell her in his own time. 

So she threw him a bone. “How did you feel about that Spanish test?”

When he smiled and released a sigh of relief, she knew she’d made the right decision. She needed and wanted to be friends with Peter Parker first and foremost. The other guy could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so very much to everyone who read this story and a special thanks to everyone who commented! It truly meant the world to me to see "___ commented on your story" pop up in the subject lines of my emails. I hope that I did this story some sort of justice. I also truly truly truly hope that one day, the United States will wake up and put policies forward that put an end to this needless violence.


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